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THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR 



rr 



LONDON: PRINTED BY 

SPOITISWOODE AND CO.. NEW-STBEET SQUA-EB 

AND PAKLIAMENT STEEET 



HISTORY 



THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR 



/ 



FROM THE HISTORIES OE HERODOTUS 



BY THE KEV. GEORGE W. COX, M.A. 

Late Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford 



GR-^CIA BARBARLE LENTO COLLISA DUELLO 



NEW EDITION 



NEW YORK 
R . W O R T H I N G T O N & CO 
7 5 BROADWAY 

London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 

1875 

The right of translation is reseived 



> 






PREFACE 

TO 

THE SECO:^D EDITIOK 



In the present edition the critical examinatioa 
of the history, which formed the Second Part of the 
former volume, has been omitted. The change has 
been made not from any wish to disavow conclu- 
sions to which ia my belief historical critics must 
more and more be carried by an impartial scrutiny, 
but because the questions there treated belong 
rather to a History of Grreece than to a volume 
which is designed to place before English readers 
the narrative of the Persian war, not as it may be 
regarded from any modern point of view but in 
the spirit and, as nearly as may be possible, 
in the language of Herodotus himself. That 
narrative in its singular simplicity must always 
possess a charm for old and young alike ; but 
it was scarcely to be expected that the scholar 



VI PREFACE TO 

should look for a treatise on the general credibility 
of the Herodotean history to a volume which pro- 
fessed to tell the Tale of the Grreat War as it has 
come down to us in the traditions of an age just 
awakening to a historical sense. 

The notes in the present edition relate only to 
questions of credibility on which it seemed scarcely 
honest to keep silence, or to points on which the 
information given might be necessary for the 
young. It is perhaps not to be wished that they 
should read the history in a spirit which instead of 
being critical may easily become captious ; but it 
can scarcely be thought right that they should go 
through a narrative involving grave improbabili- 
ties, especially when these improbabilities closely 
touch the good names of great men, without the 
least consciousness that it is their duty to see 
whether the facts took place as they are related or 
whether they did not. The episodes of Demokedes 
and Histiaios may present difficulties as great as 
any which may force themselves on our attention 
in the narrative of the two embassies of Sikinnos 
to Xerxes ; but an examination of the latter is not 
only needed to vindicate the character of The- 
mistokles, but is more likely to awaken the 
interest of readers who may take up the history 
for the first time. 



THE SECOND EDITION. Vll 

The Appendix on the constitutions of Athens 
and Sparta is designed, like the notes, to point out 
the direction in which the reader may extend his 
enquiries in order to make himself more fully 
acquainted with the subject. 



I 



PREFACE 

TO 

THE FIRST EDITION". 



Theke are few, perhaps/ who, even in the first 
reading, have failed to perceive something of the 
beauty which pervades the histories of Herodotus, 
— few who have not felt the deep religious sen- 
timent, the sympathy for unmerited suffering, 
the keen appreciation of all pure and lofty mo- 
tives, the strict impartiality towards friend or foe, 
which pre-eminently characterise his writings. But 
there are probably still fewer in whom the first 
perusal has not left an impression of strange 
incoherence and incongruity. The mention of 
each fresh king, or city, or people leads into long 
and apparently arbitrary digressions ; and a nar- 
rative of the struggle between Greece and Persia 
is introduced by an account of all the wars and 
battles of the world. His work assumes the 



X PREFACE TO 

appearance of history within history, of legend 
within legend, until the existence of any connect- 
ing principle seems doubtful or impossible. Soon, 
however, the reader begins to perceive, first, that 
a distinct religious conviction underlies each 
personal history, and then that the same moral 
sentiment is found in every episode of personal 
adventure. The jealousy of the gods who will not 
suffer pride to go too long unchecked, or wealth 
and happiness too long unbroken, — the inevitable 
course of a destiny which bears sway over the 
majesty of Zeus himself, — the influence, some- 
times kindly, sometimes malignant, which the 
gods exercise over men, — the retributive justice 
which visits the sins of the forefathers on their 
guiltless or devout posterity, — the reverent cau- 
tion which refuses to call any man during this 
life happy, — all make up a body of religious belief 
which supplies not only a theological creed, but 
also a system of moral philosophy. And pre- 
sently he will see that this religious sentiment is 
not confined to personal history. The national 
fortunes of Greeks and Lydians, Persians and 
Egyptians, exhibit the working of the same laws 
and teach the same religious lessons. If after 
this he cares to follow the track which opens 
before him, he will see that this moral or theo- 



II 



THE FIRST EDITION. XI 

logical conviction has imparted to his history a 
strictly epical unity : he will see that from the 
beginning to the end there is a chain of cause and 
effect, quite distinct from that sequence of human 
and political motive which we are wont to regard 
as the mainspring of history. He will learn to 
trace the working of this moral power from the 
legends of lo or Europe, through the tale of Troy 
and of the Lydian dynasties, to the punishment 
w^hich Persian arrogance brought upon itself at 
Delphi and Salamis and Mykale. And, last of all, 
he may perceive that such a conviction, so wide 
yet so penetrating, so comprehensive in its general 
survey, yet so careful of minute detail, can never 
have originated in the historian himself; that, to 
whatever extent the strength of his genius and 
the purity of his mind may have heigJitened his 
moral and religious sentiment, yet the impulse 
must have come from without ; and that, in all 
essential features, the historian is but the repre- 
sentative of the age in which he lived. 

He will thus see that the historical conception 
of the age (if it deserves the name) was pre-emi- 
nently religious ; that it sought less for the truth 
of actual facts than for evidence of its theological 
convictions ; and thnt a narrative which met this 
test underwent in other respects no careful and 



I 



Xll PREFACE TO 

rigorous scrutiny. The tale which proved the 
living jealousy of the gods, which spoke of ven- 
geance taken on fraud or violence or overmuch 
prosperity, which asserted the visible interference 
of heavenly beings among the children of men, 
satisfied every condition of credibility. The story 
was believed if it told of marvellous sights and 
preternatural sounds on the earth or in the 
heavens : it was disbelieved if it gave no further 
explanation of personal or national fortunes than 
that which may be furnished by motives of human 
appetite or passion. Things beyond nature pre- 
sented to that age nothing startling or strange ; 
the absence of prodigies and wonders alone pre- 
cluded the hearty acceptance of a story. 

But the region of signs and portents and 
heavenly manifestations is also the region of 
poetry. The mingling of gods and men, of those 
men, at least, whose soul was in some way raised 
above the mere appetite of food and drink and 
sleep, is the groundwork of all epical poems, and 
in a special degree of the great epics of the Greek 
heroic ages. The mythical belief of those ages 
surrounded the people with an atmosphere of 
poetry. The bard may have surpassed his hearers 
in the strength of his sensations and his power of 
expressing them ; the statesman and the general 



1 



THE FIRST EDITION. X311 

may have had a keener appreciation of their 
grandeur and their loveliness : but, from the 
greatest to the meanest, the same religious faith, 
the same moral convictions, appealed to the deep- 
est feelings of their heart, and guided at once their 
judgment and their actions. 

At no time, perhaps, has there existed a con- 
dition of thought which could with greater truth 
receive the name of public opinion. It was a 
universal belief, not as enforced by some despotic 
power, but as the spontaneous expression of an 
all-pervading faith. It was a belief which needed 
neither proof nor argument, for no one was con- 
scious of a single thought which questioned or 
denied it ; and when the course of time gradually 
brought into life a new power, and men became 
conscious of another principle of causation than 
that which alone they had hitherto recognised, it 
was long before it was felt that the new principle 
had in it anything antagonistic to the former. 
The idea of a natural order, which was impressed 
on them by the interchange of times and seasons, 
suggested no thought of a similar order in the 
world of men. And even when the regulated 
operation of physical causes had conveyed to 
their minds some notions of probability or impos- 
sibility, the influence of this new knowledge was 



XIV PREFACE TO 

very uncertain, and its application very capricious. 
Men could believe that Apollo quenched the fire 
that rose around his devout worshipper, while 
they would not believe that doves had spoken 
with human voices. They could affirm that deified 
heroes came back to mingle in human strife, 
when they would not believe that Herakles in his 
mortal state had slain thousands at a single blow. 
It is this middle ground of unquestioning faith 
and an incipient historical criticism which is oc- 
cupied by the great work of Herodotus. The 
beauty of the narrative may be his own ; the 
poetical conception and religious sentiment he 
shared with the whole Hellenic family. This 
sentiment has moulded every part of his history, 
has guided him in the choice of his materials, has 
supplied the connecting link through the twisted 
chain of episodes and digressions. It has im- 
parted a character to his language of w^hich the 
peculiarity never breaks the charm, and in which 
a certain monotony never destroys the freshness. 
Such a history, it would seem, can scarcely be 
divested of its original form without weakening 
or destroying its vigour and beauty ; and if pre- 
sented in any other shape, it may to a greater or 
less degree satisfy the requirements of modern 
criticism, but it will not be the same history as it 




THE FIRST EDITION. XV 

rose before the mind of Herodotus. We may 
possibly arrive at the truth of facts by a careful 
analysis of its materials and sifting of its evi- 
dence ; but it will no longer be the narrative whose 
beauty is said to have extorted the applause of 
thousands at the great Olympic games. 

This narrative, whose exquisite beauty cannot 
be altogether veiled in the critical histories of our 
own time, has perhaps not yet been presented to 
English readers. There are many translations of 
Herodotus, but no translation can be free from 
some at least of the many defects which seem 
inseparable from the work of expressing literally 
in one language the thoughts and feelings of 
another. Phrases not without force and beauty in 
the original become heavy and cumbrous in the 
translation, while natural and expressive idioms 
pass into unmeaning and disagreeable verbiage. 
And if the long episodes and complicated digres- 
sions so interrupt the march of the narrative for 
the reader who studies it in the original language, 
there can, it would seem, be no necessity to intro- 
duce the same interruptions in another. The omis- i 
sion of those portions of the tale which do not J 
belong immediately to the main subject of the 
history, will probably give a far more faithful 
and vivid idea of the original narrative. 



1^ 



XVI PREFACE TO 

It is not a question for historical criticism. 
Doubtless, the statements of the work are either 
credible or incredible, and we may reasonably 
attempt to determine the bounds and degrees 
of that credibility ; but no analysis of its contents 
and no examination of its evidence can lay before 
the reader the palpable form which has undergone 
this necessary dissection. The story, as conceived 
by Herodotus, can be told in no other way than 
his own. We may criticise and compare and draw 
inferences from the mythical legends of Greece 
or Eome or Scandinavia, but to realise them fully 
we must also read and tell them as they are. And 
while we read such narratives, we must remember 
that the poetical conception which they exhibit 
is not confined to the writer, and that all terms 
of praise or dispraise grounded on his poetical, or 
fanciful, or credulous tendencies, or his love of 
exaggeration and contrast, are equally erroneous. 
He cannot be accused of personal credulity, if his 
faith is but the reflection of the universal belief 
of his age ; he cannot be charged with equivoca- 
tion or falsehood, if he only remains true to the 
ordinary convictions of his countrymen. 

This narrative, certainly one of the most beau- 
tiful that mortal hand has written down, has been 
examined with admirable power and judgment 



THE FIRST EDITION. XVU 

by the great critical historians of the present cen- 
tury. The religious sentiment, the human and su- 
pernatural sequence of events, with every episode 
and every incident, have been minutely analysed ; 
but even in the pages of writers whom it would be 
presumptuous to praise, the reader will fail to find 
the history of Herodotus as it appears in his own 
pages. It is impossible that he should so find it ; 
and the want may furnish some justification for the 
present attempt to clothe in an English dress, and 
without the restraints imposed on a professed 
translation, a narrative rich with all the wealth of 
Homeric imagery and never perhaps surpassed in 
the majesty of epical conception. 



NOTE 

ON THB 

ORTHOGKAPHY OF GREEK NAMES. 



There are Few, probably, who still think that for the 
names of Greek gods and heroes should be substituted 
certain Latin names with which, for the most part, they 
have no connection either of sound or of idea. The 
system of adhering to the Greek names of deities had 
been long since adopted by Dr. Thirlwall and other 
writers, when Mr. Grote endeavoured in his History of 
Greece to bring the English spelling of all Greek names 
into a more strict agreement with the original. In his 
work on Homer and the Homeric Age, Mr. Gladstone 
retained not merely the Latin forms for ordinary names, 
but once more placed Jupiter, Mars, and Minerva on 
the thrones of Zeus, Ares, and Athene. Of the reasons 
which led him to this determination Mr. Gladstone said 
nothing ; but Mr. Rawlinson, who in his translation of 
Herodotus has followed his example, thinks that ' in a 
work intended for general reading, unfamiliar forms were 
to be eschewed, and that accuracy in such matters, 
although perhaps more scholarlike, would be dearly 
purchased at the expense of harshness and repulsive- 
ness.' 

a2 



XX NOTE ON THE 

It is not easy to determine with any precision wLat 
may be familiar or unfamiliar forms in the world of 
letters. They must necessarily vary in successive gene- 
rations, or perhaps during the same generation. Yet, 
probably, the use of the Greek forms in translating the 
great epic and tragic poets is as familiar now to the boys 
of our public schools, as was the practice of calling Her^ 
Juno, and Demeter Ceres, some twenty or five-and- 
twenty years ago. At the least, it is a use which every 
year is becoming more general and more familiar ; and 
when once the scholar has accustomed himself to adopt 
the Greek forms in English translation, nothing will 
more grate upon his ear than to hear Poseidon called 
Neptime, or more offend his eye than to see ^ Diana * 
written where he looks to find ^ Artemis.' It may 
safely be maintained that to the readers of Plomer or 
Herodotus generally the Greek forms are quite as 
familiar as the Latin, and that the objections which may 
here and there be raised are fast growing weaker and 
will soon be abandoned. 

' Harshness ' and ' repulsiveness,' again, are qualities 
which in some measure are matters of taste ; yet we 
might be tempted to think that the terms apply far 
more forcibly to the Latin nomenclature than to the 
Greek. The former is undoubtedly good in its place ; 
but by the side of the euphonious names of Hellas those 
of some at least among Latin gods and heroes may well 
be thought harush and ugly, and it needs a very long 
practice to make their sound agreeable, although it may 
be familiar. 

But a more serious objection to the use of the Latin 
forms is the confusion of ideas which it must cause in 



OETHOaHAPHY OF aKEEK NAMES. XXI 

any subjects closely connected with Greek mythology. 
It is of less consequence to talk of Mars, Ceres, or 
Bacchus in Thucydides, for Ares, Demeter, and Diony- 
sos do not much figure in his pages ; but the system 
as applied to Homer not only introduces innumerable 
blemishes to offend the eye, but places side by side 
words which convey notions entirely contradictory. 
The same page will contain the names of Mars and 
Askalaphos, lalmenos and Vesta, Podaleirios and Mer- 
cury, names of which the one may be said to belong 
wholly to Latin, the other wholly to Greek mythology. 
In the present edition an effort has been made to as- 
similate the spelling of proper names as nearly as pos- 
sible to the Greek, in all instances except in names 
which were foreign w^ords to the Greeks themselves (as 
Croesus, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius), and the few in 
which the change might still wear an appearance of 
affectation. We are probably still too much accustomed 
to Thucydides, Delphi, and Lacedsemon, willingly to 
part with them for Thoukydides, Delphoi, and Lake- 
daimon. But in general it will be admitted that much is 
lost by departing from the Greek forms ; and if in some 
instances we may feel a reluctance in reverting to the 
latter, this feeling will soon be overcome if we remem- 
ber that in many if not in most cases the Latin forms 
involved no change of sound. The fault lies with our 
insular pronunciation of vowels, — a peculiarity shared 
by us with no other nation. The Greek Moirai and the 
Latinised Moerse, the Greek Boiotia and the Latinised 
Boeotia, were pronounced precisely alike ; and thus all 
that we need to bear in mind is that the Greek ai and 
the Latin ce should be pronounced like ai in faily the 
Greek oi and ei and the Latin oe like ee in sheen. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAG« 

The Beginnings of the Strife — The Tales of Croesus and 
Cambyses — The Athenians regain their Freedom . , 3 

CHAPTER II. 

The Pall of Polykrates — Demokedes at Sousa and at 
Kroton ......... 25 

CHAPTER III. 

The Inroad of the Persians into Scythia — The tale of Aris- 
tagoras and Histiaios — Miltiades and Marathon . . 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Council of Xerxes — His Dream and its Issue — The 
Tale of Pythios, his Riches and his Children — The 
March of the Army, and the Passage of the Hellespont 62 

CHAPTER V. 

The Oracles of Delphi, and the Counsels of Themistokles 
— The Embassies to Argos and to Syracuse — Leonid as 
at Thermopylai 93 



XXIV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

The Strife of Ships and Storms at Artemision — The Sight- 
seeing at Thermopylai — The Persians at Delphi . . 123 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Greeks at Salaniis — The Fight and Victory — The 
Counsel of Mardonios — The Flight to Sardes . .135 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Greatness of Themistokles and the Athenians — Mar- 
donios at Athens — The Feast of Attaginos . . .171 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Gathering at Plataiai — Mardonios atones for the Death 
of Leonidas — The Storming of the Persian Camp — The 
Flight and Trick of Artabazos 1 90 

CHAPTER X. 

The Fight at Mykale-The Marvel of the Herald's Staff— 
. The Loves of King Xerxes at Sardes and at Sousa — The 
Vengeance of Protesilaos 230 



APPENDIX. 



I. On the Athenian Constitution .... 245 

II. On the Constitution of Sparta .... 256 
III. On the Spartan Army 262 

Index 265 



THE TALE 



THE GEEAT PEESIAN WAR 



\ 



-1 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE BEGINNINGS OE THE STRIFE. — THE TALES OF CECESUS 
AND CAMBYSES. — THE ATHENIANS EEGAIN THEIE EEEE- 
DOM. 



Those far renowned brides of ancient song 
Peopled the hollow dark, like burning stars ; 

And I heard sounds of insult, shame, and wrong, 
And trumpets blown for wars. 

Tennyson. 



For many ages there was enmity between the Herodotus 



Persians and the Greeks; and many tales were 
told on both sides to show how it began. So 
Herodotus of Halikarnassos sought diligently to 
learn the truth, by asking questions of those who 
knew ; and he wrote a book to keep alive the 
memory of the great things which had been done, 
as well by the barbarians as by the Grreeks. 

The Persian tale-tellers lay the beginning of the 
quarrel to the charge of the Phoenicians, and say 
that these, as they sailed about the wide sea, came 
to Argos, which was then the greatest place in all 
Hellas, and there began to sell their wares. A 
few days afterwards, 16, the daughter of Inachos 
the king, came with other maidens into the ship ; 

132 



1. 1. 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



^ 



and as they stood near the stern, buying the things 
for which they had need, the Phoenicians fell upon 
them, and carried away 16, with those of her 

2 maidens who were not able to escape. In requital 
of this, some Greeks, they say, went to Tyre, the 
great city of the Phoenicians, and stole away the 
king's daughter Europe. Thus far both sides 
were equal. But after this the Grreeks opened up 
the strife afresh, when they sailed to Aia in the 
Kolchian land, and to the river Phasis, and thence 
brought away by force Medeia the daughter of 
the king, who sent a herald after them to Hellas 
to ask for the maiden and to demand a recom- 
pense. But the Grreeks said that they would give 
none, because they had received none when 16 

3 was taken away from Argos. In the second gene- 
ration after this, Alexandres, the son of Priam, 
heard the tale, and determined to steal a wife 
from Hellas and give no recompense for her. So 
he went and stole Helen ; and when the Greeks 
asked them to give her up and to make an atone- 
ment, the men of Troy told the Greeks that they 
had made no requital for Medeia, and now they 

4 would make none for Helen. Thus far, there 
w^ere but single thefts on either side ; but hence- 
forth the Persians lay much guilt to the charge 
of the Greeks ; for if it be unjust to steal women, 
still (they said) it was folly to seek to avenge 
them, and wisdom to take no heed to what was 



THE CAUSES OF THE QUAEREL. 5 

done, seeing that women were never stolen against 
their will. Instead of doing thus^ the Greeks 
gathered together a great army, and, going into 
Asia, destroyed the kingdom of Priam : and there- 
fore was there hatred between the Persians and 
the Grreeks — for the Persians claim all the na- 
tions that dwell in Asia as their own, and a 
wrong done to any of them they hold to be done 
to themselves. 

Such are the tales which are told of the former 
days ; ^ but in after times there came other causes 
of quarrel. 

^ It is scarcely necessary to say that, if we put aside the 
names, this version of the legends of 16, Europe, Medeia, and 
Helen, has nothing in conmion with the old mythical traditions. 
Yet unless we lay full stress on this fact, we cannot measure 
accurately the degree in which Herodotus was influenced by a 
form of thought utterly opposed to the spirit of the ancient 
stories. The incidents as here given are not only probable but 
commonplace, and they are presented as connected links in 
the series of causes which led to the Persian War. But the 
myths have a perfectly independent existence, while they exhibit 
scarcely a single incident which is not supernatural. In the 
genuine story 16 is not a young lady who is deceived by the 
captain of a Phoenician merchant-vessel, but a maiden whom 
Zeus loves, and who, when changed into a heifer by Here, is 
chased over boundless regions by the fearful gadfly (Manual of 
Mythology, p. 129). Eur6pe in the old legend was stolen away, 
not by Hellenes, but by Zeus in the form of a white bull ; and 
the name of her mother Telephassa, who dwells in the pm^ple 
land, points clearly to the origin of the story (Manual of Mytho- 
logy, p. 108). The legend of Medeia is still more full of marvels 
and prodigies. It brings before us the golden fleece of the ram 



b TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

. 6 Croesus, the son of Alyattes, ruled over the 
children of the Lydians^ and over all the nationsiB| 
who live within the river Halys, westward ; and 
he made many of the Grreeks pay him tribute, 
when up to his time they had all been free ; but 
the Lacedaemonians he won over to be his friends. 
In his days the power of the Persians began to 
46 grow very great, and Croesus thought how he 
might break it down before it should become too 
strong ; for Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, had put 

130 down his grandfather Astyages from being king 
of the Medians ; and even before his day, Ky- 

103 axares, the father of Astyages, had taken Nineveh, 
and conquered the kingdom of Assyria. And 
therefore Croesus was the more afraid, because 
Cyrus was the master of the Medes and As- 
syrians, and of the Persians, who were the bravest 
of all ; and the thought of these things turned 

who bore Phrixos and Helle through the air, the voyage of the 
speaking ship Argo, the taming of the fire-breathing bulls, the 
destruction of the men who sprang from the dragon's teeth, the 
deadly robe of Helios which eats the flesh of Glauke and of 
Kreon, and the dragon chariot which bears the wise maiden 
away from the vengeance of the Argives. (lb. p. 149, &c.) Of 
the myth of Helen, it is enough to say that it has been brought 
down to the level of ordinary history only by rejecting every 
feature in the narratives of the Iliad or the Odyssey, and that, 
if this method is to be accepted, the wildest and most absurd 
legends may without difficulty be made to wear the semblance 
of genuine history. (Manual of Mythology, p. 155. See also 
Tales of Ancient Greece, xlix. 85, 186, 154.) 




THE QUESTION OF CRGESUS. 7 

aside the grief which he had for the death of i. 46 
his son Adrastos, whom Atys the Phrygian had 
unwittingly slain^ so that he resolved to make 
trial of all the oracles to see which of them 
spake truly^ before he asked them whether he 
should prosper in the war. He sent^ therefore, 
to Ammon in Libya, to Amphiaraos and Tro- 
phonios and the Milesian Branchidai, to Delphi 
also, and Abai of the Phokians, and Dodona, 
charging the men to count one hundred days 47 
from the time of leaving Sardes, and then to ask 
all the oracles at once what Croesus, the king of 
Lydia, might then be doing. What the other 
oracles answered, there are none to tell us ; but at 
Delphi, when the Lydians had asked as Croesus 
bade them, the priestess answered and said : 

^I know the number of the sand and the 
measure of the sea ; 

' I understand the dumb man, and hear him 
who speaks not ; 

' And there comes to me now the savour of a 
hard-shelled tortoise, 

' Which is seething in a brazen vessel with the 
flesh of a ram. 

' And brass there is beneath it and brass upon 
it.' 1 

* I have not attempted to put the oracular responses into the 
form of hexameters, for it can scarcely be said with truth that 
any such metre exists in English. The hexameter is emi- 



8 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



m 

car-SI 



I. ^8 These words the Lydians wrote down and 

ried back to the king ; and when all had returned 
to Sardes from the other oracles, Croesus took the 
answers and unfolded them. But none of them 
pleased him until he came to the words of the 
Delphian god, for he alone knew that on the 
hundredth day Croesus went into a secret place 
where none might see him, and boiled a tortoise 
49 and a ram in a brazen vessel over which he placed 
a brazen cover. This oracle alone, with that of 
^^ Amphiaraos, he held to have spoken truly. There- 
fore with mighty sacrifices he sought to win the 
favour of the god at Delphi. He offered up three 
thousand cattle, and he set on fire a great pile of 
couches broidered in silver and gold, with golden 
goblets and purple robes. He sent him also many 
talents of fine gold and silver, which he wrought 
out into the shape of bricks, with the figure of a 
lion made of gold, ten talents in weight, which 
now stands in the treasure chamber of the Corin- 
51 thians at Delphi. Many other gifts also he sent, 
goblets and jars and vessels for sprinkling, all 

: 52 notable for their beauty and their richness. Others 
53 also he sent to the temple of Amphiaraos ; and he 

nently a measure for a language guided by quantity, while 
the English is governed altogetlier by accent : and any attempt 
to reproduce the Greek metre in an English dress serves only to 
place the latter language under restraints which are alien to 
its character and spirit. 



THE EIDCLE OF THE MULE. 9 

charged his messengers to go to both these oracles 
and ask if he should march against the Persians, 
and if he should ask any others to help him in the 
war. And both gave the same answer that if 
he went against the Persians he would destroy a 
great kingdom ; and counselled him to find out 
the mightiest among the Grreeks and make them 
his friends. Then was Croesus still more pleased, 54 
feeling sure now that he would throw down the 
kingdom of Cyrus ; and he sent money for all the 
Delphians^ two pieces for each man ; in return for 
which the Delphians gave great honours to Croesus 
and all the Lydians. 

After this Croesus questioned the god for the 55 
third time ; for when he found that he might trust 
him, he loaded him with questions. And now, 
when he asked if his empire should last a long 
time, the priestess answered — 

' When a mule shall be king of the Modes, 

' Then, tender-footed Lydian, flee by the 
banks of the pebbly Hermos, 

^ Flee and tarry not, neither care to hide thy 
fear.' 

Then Croesus was more than ever pleased, for 
he thought that a mule would never rule over 
the Modes, and so his own power should last for 
ever. 

After this he sought to learn who were the 5(3 
mightiest among the Greeks, and he found that the 



10 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Athenians were at the head of the Ionic race 
and the Lacedaemonians of the Dorian ;^ but the 
Athenians were at this time hard pressed under 

* The mythical genealogies would alone suffice to show that 
no generic distinctions between the several portions of the 
Hellenic race can be founded on the mere names of lonians and 
Dorians. Such distinctions, if they are to be ascertained at all, 
belong to purely physiological enquiry. History has nowhere 
preserved the evidence. All that can be said is, that in historical 
Greece we find certain peoples calling themselves lonians, 
Dorians, and -Slolians, that they are found both in Western 
Hellas and on the eastern shores of the ^ggean sea, and that the 
latter are said to be offshoots from the former. This alleged 
fact stands precisely on a level with the cajpitt mortuum to which 
Thucydides (i. 9-11) has reduced the story of the Trojan war ; 
and we can only say of it in Mr. Grote's words, that as the 
possibility of it cannot be denied, so neither can its reality be 
affirmed. The origin of national or clan names is a subject of 
great interest, which has not yet been satisfactorily handled. 
Whatever the name Ion may be, it is clearly connected with other 
mythical Greek names, as lole, lolaos, lokaste, lamos. When it 
is added that the names of Hellenes, Athenians, Arcadians, 
Lykians, Argives, are all claimed by comparative mythologists 
as pointing in the same direction, and carrying us away into 
cloudland, we may well be cautious in using them as evidence 
in strictly historical enquiries. The differences between Spartan 
and Athenian character may have been great, but they cannot 
be explained by referring Spartans and Athenians to the sons 
or grandsons of Deukalion and Pyrrha. 

These distinctions were unknowTi to Persians and Phoenicians 
who included all the Greeks under the Ionian name (Javan), 
just as the Romans spoke of the Hellenes collectively as Greeks 
— a name which Aristotle gives only to a tribe in the parts about 
Dodona and the Acheloos, and which therefore answers to the 
name Hesperian as a designation for the inhabitants of Italy. 



THE COUNSEL OF SANDANIS. 11 

the rule of their tyrant Peisistratos the son of 
Hippokrates ; while the Lacedaemonians had risen 65 
to great power and were well ordered by the laws 
which they had received from Lykourgos. To these 69 
therefore he sent a herald, and made a covenant 
with them that they should help in the war; 
and so he made ready to march against the Per- 71 
sians. Neither would he listen to the words of 
Sandanis, who counselled him well, saying, ^0 
king, thou art going against men whose raiment 
is of leather, and who eat not what they like but 
what they can get in a rough and barren country, 
who have neither wine nor figs nor anything else 
that is good. If, then, thou shouldest conquer 
them, what canst thou take away from men who 
have nothing ? If thou art conquered, think what 
thou wilt lose. When they have once tasted of our 
good things, they will not cease to pour in upon 
us ; and therefore I thank the gods who have not 
put it into the mind of the Persians to come forth 
against the Lydians.' 

Thus he despised all counsel, and marched to 75 
the Halys, where the army crossed over on the 
bridges which were there before ; or, as some say, 
Thales ^ of Miletos made a new channel for the 

^ Thales was numbered among the seyen wise men of Greece — 
a mystic band which reminds us of the seven Eishis of ancient 
Hindoo tradition as well as of the seven champions of Christen- 
dom. The death of Thales preceded the manhood of Herodotus 



12 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAE. 



^ 



river, so that, when some part of the water was 
taken off, the men were able to cross it easily. 

76 Then Croesus went on to Pterie, and took many 
cities, and ravaged their lands, until Cyrus came 
up with his armies. First he tried to draw off 
the lonians from Croesus^ but they would not 
hearken to him ; and afterwards a great battle 
was fought, in which neither side had the victory, 

77 for the night came on and parted them. On the 
next day, when Cyrus came not again to the 
attack, Croesus drew off his army to Sardes, for 
he liked not the scantiness of their numbers: and 
he was minded during the winter to gather to 
his aid the Egj^ptians and Babylonians, with the 
men of Lacedsemon, and so in the spring to march 
out once more against the Persians. So when 
he reached Sardes, he sent away all the army 
which he had with him, for he thought not that 
the Persians were even now coming against him. 

79 For when Cyrus knew that Croesus was gone to 
Sardes after the battle in Pterie and was about 
to scatter his army, he determined to march 
against him before his allies could come together, 
and himself to brinof the news of his coming. 



■"o 



by about a century, and his birth preceded it by nearly two 
centuries. He left nothing in writing. . . . Hence the accounts 
both of his life and doctrines which reached the earliest histo- 
rians were confused and inaccurate or alloyed with fable.' — Sir 
G. C. Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, ch. ii. section 2. 



THE SIEGE OF SAEDES. 13 

Then was Croesus in a great strait, but still he i. 
led forth his Lydians. who w^ere at this time the 
bravest of the nations in Asia and fought on 
horseback with long spears ; and he drew them 80 
up on the large plain which lies before the city of 
Sardes. These horsemen Cyrus greatly feared ; and 
at the counsel of Harpagos^ a Mede^ he placed 
riders on all the camels, and drew them up in 
front of his arm}^ So when the battle began, 
and the horses of the Lydians smelt the camels 
and saw them, they turned and fled, and the 
hopes of King Croesus perished. But still the 
Lydians fought on bravely until many were killed, 
and at last they v^ere driven into the city and 
shut up there. Then Croesus sent in haste- to his 81 
allies, and bade them come at once to his aid ; 
for, before, he had charged them to be ready at 
the end of the fourth month. 

So fourteen days passed away ; and then Cyrus 84 
promised to reward richly the man w^ho first 
should climb the walls. But the men tried in 
vain to climb them, until a Mardian, named 
Hyroiades, found a part where no guards had 
been placed, because the hill was steep and the 
Lydians thought that no one would ever attempt 
to climb up by that way. But Hyroiades had 
seen some one go down there and fetch up his 
helmet, which had rolled from the wall ; and by 
the same path he went up himself, and other 



14 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



1 



Persians with him ; and so was Sardes taken, 
all the city plundered. 
86 Thus Croesus was made prisoner^ when he had 
reigned for fourteen years and had been besieged 
for fourteen days,^ and when, as the oracle had 
foretold^ he had destroyed his own great powder. 
And the men who took him led him to Cyrus, 
who raised a great pile of wood and placed 
Croesus on it, bound in chains, with fourteen of 
the Lydians, either because he wished to offer 
them up as the firstfruits of his victory, or to see 
if any of the gods w^ould deliver Croesus who (as 
he had learnt) was one w^ho greatly honoured 
them. Then to Croesus in his great agony came 
back the words which Solon had spoken to him, 
that no living man was happy ; and as he thought 
on this he sighed, and after a long silence thrice 

* This parallelism between the years and the days shows that 
the narrative still keeps ns in greater or less degree in the re- 
gion of artificial chronology. This system has been applied with 
great ingenuity to the Homan annals down to the burning of 
the city by the Gauls. The simple plan of dividing it into three 
equal periods is followed up by the more skilful device of placing 
the middle of the fourth reign at the end of the first of these 
periods. The arbitrary way in which the length of the other 
reigns was determined has been laid bare by Niebuhr, History 
of Rome, vol. i. Beginning and Nature of the Earliest History. 
An eight times repeated cycle of eight years, with the number 
forty employed to express completeness, forms the basis of 
early Anglo-Saxon chronology. Lappenberg, History of England 
under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, i. 77, 109. 



THE DELIVERANCE OF CRCESUS. 15 

called out the name of Solon. And Cyrus, hear- ] 
ing this, bade the interpreters ask him whom he 
called; but for a long time he would not answer 
them. At last, when they pressed him greatly, 
he told them that long ago Solon the Athenian 
came to see him and thought nothing of all his 
wealth ; and how the words had come to pass 
which Solon spake, not thinking of him more 
than of any others who fancy that they are 
happy. While Croesus thus spake, the edge of 
the pile was already kindled. And Cyrus, when 
he heard the tale, remembered that he too was 
but a man, and that he was now giving alive to 
the flames one who had been not less wealthy 
than himself; and when he thought also how 
man abideth not ever in one stay, he charged 
them to put out the fire and bring Croesus and 
the other Lydians dow^n from the pile. But the 
flame was too strong ; and when Croesus saw that 87 
the mind of Cyrus was changed but that the 
men were not able to quench the fire, he prayed 
to Apollo to come and save him, if ever he had 
done aught to please him in the days that were 
past. And suddenly the wind rose, and clouds 
gathered where none had been before, and there 
burst from the heaven a great storm of rain, 
which put out the blazing fire. Then Cyrus 
knew that Croesus was a good man and that the 
gods loved him ; and when he came down from 




16 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



the pile^ he said, ^ Croesus, who persuaded 
thee to march against my land, and to become 
my enemy rather than my friend ?' And Crcesus 
answered, ' It is the god of the Greeks, king, 
who urged me on ; for no man is so senseless as 
to choose war rather than peace, in which the 
children bury their fathers, while in war the 
fathers bury their children : but so it pleased the 
gods that thus it should be.' 
88 Then Cyrus unloosed his chains and kept him 
by his side, and Croesus gave him good counsel 

90 touching the plunder of the city, so that Cyrus 
bade him ask as a gift whatever he should most 
desire to have. And Croesus said, ' king, let 
me send these fetters to the god of the Grreeks, 
and ask him if it be his wont to deceive those who 
have done him good.' Then Cyrus asked him 
what he meant ; and when Croesus had told him 
all the tale, he laughed, and said, ^ This thou shalt 
have, Croesus, and whatsoever else thou mayest 
wish for.' So he sent men to Delphi to show the 
chains, and to ask if it was the wont of the 
Hellenic gods that they should be ungrateful. 

91 When the Lydians came into the temple, the 
priestess said, ^ Not even a god can escape from 
the lot which is prepared for him ; and Croesus 
in the fifth generation, has suffered for the sin of 
him who, at the bidding of a woman, slew his 
lord and seized his power. Much did the god 



THE ANSWER OF APOLLO. 17 

labour that the evil might fall in the days of his 
children and not of Croesus himself, but he could 
not turn the fates aside. Still, what he could he 
obtained for him. For three years he put off the 
taking of Sardes ; and he came to his aid when the 
flame had grown fierce on the blazing pile. And, 
yet more^ he is wrong in blaming the god for 
the answer that if he went against the Persians 
he would destroy a great power ; for he should 
then have asked if the god meant his own power 
or that of Cyrus : and therefore is he the cause 
of his own sorrow. Neither^ again, would he 
understand what the god spake about the mule ; 
for Cyrus himself was this mule, being the son of 
a Median woman, the daughter of Astyages, and 
of a man born of the meaner race of the Persians.' 
This answer the Lydians brought to Sardes ; and 
Croesus knew that the god was guiltless, and that 
the fault was all his own.^ So was Croesus taken, 
and so was Ionia first subdued. 



* Herodotus acknowledges that he obtained the story of the 
blazing pyre from Lydian sources. A Persian with his belief 
about fire would scarcely have made Cyrus use it for the purpose 
of burning an enemy. But a miraculous interposition is found 
also in Ktesias, who speaks of the chains of Crcesus as miraculously 
struck off in the midst of a storm of thunder and lightning, but 
says nothing of the kindled pile. Apart from the bare fact that 
Cyrus overthrew the Lydian monarchy, the story of Croesus is 
simply an embodiment of the theological feelings of the age. It 
is an illustration of the absolute supremacy of the Moirai, or 

C 



18 TALE OF THE GREAT PEESIAN WAR. 

I. 141 But soon the lonians rebelled against the Per- 

152 sians and sent to ask aid from the Lacedaemonians, 
who refused to help them but yet sent men in a 
ship of fifty oars to charge Cyrus not to hurt any 

153 city of the Grreeks, for the Spartans would not 
overlook it. But Cyrus asked of the bystanders 
who the Spartans might be ; and when he heard, 
he answered, ' I never yet feared men who have a 
place in the midst of their city where they take 
oaths and cheat one another. If I live and pros- 
per, these men shall have sorrows of their own 
to talk about instead of the woes of the lonians.' 

162 So Harpagos, the Median, was sent against the 
169 lonians; and soon he conquered them, and Ionia 

was a second time brought into slavery. 
178 Then the power of King Cyrus grew stronger, 

and he went against Babylon and took it, and put 
200 down Labynetos from being king : and after this, 

he purposed to march against the Massagetai, a 

great and strong nation, who dwell beyond the 
205 river Araxes and who at this time were ruled by 

a queen named Tomyris, whose husband was dead. 

So Cyrus asked her to become his wife; but 

Tomyris knew that he sought not herself but her 

Norns (Manual of Mythology, p. 234), even over the gods them- 
selves. * The religious element must here he viewed as giving 
the form, the historical element as giving the matter only, and 
not the whole matter, of the story/ (Grote, History of Greece, 
Part II. ch. xxxii.) 






CYRUS MAKES WAR WITH THE MASSAGETAI. 19 



kingdom^ and forbade him to approach her. And i 
Cyrus, seeiog that craft availed not, marched 
openly to the Araxes and built bridges by which 206 
his army might cross over. But as he was thus 
busied, Tomyris sent a herald, and said, ' King of 
the Medes, cease from thy toil, for thou canst not 
know the end of thy labour. Eule over thine own 
people, and leave me to rule over mine. But if 
thou wilt not do thus, come, let us make a 
covenant together. Either we will go three days' 
journey from the river, so that thou mayest cross 
over into my land; or do thou depart in like 
manner from the river and let us pass into thy 
country.' ^ Then Cyrus called together the first 
men of the Persians, who all besought him to let 207 
Tomyris pass over into their land; but Croesus 
liked not their counsel, and he said, ' king, 1 
promised at the first, when Zeus gave me into thy 
hands, to do all that I could in thy service. My 
sorrows have been my teachers ; but there will be 
no use in my words, if thou thinkest thyself im- 
mortal and that thou art leading an army of men 
who will never die. But if thou knowest that 
thou art a man and rulest also over men, then 
learn this, that there is a cycle in human fortunes, 
which, as it turns round in its course, suffers not 

* This chaHenge is introduced into the narrative of the first 
Scottish campaign of Edward III. in 1327. (Longman, Life 
and Times of Edward III.^ vol. ii.) 

C 2 



20 TALE OF THE GRExiT PERSIAN WAR. 

the same men to be always prosperous. Now if 
we receive the enemy into our land, there is this 
danger, that if defeated thou wilt ruin all thy 
kingdom, for the Massagetai will not care to 
return to their own country ; and if thou gainest 
the victory, it will avail thee more to gain it where 
we may follow them as they flee; and, besides 
this, it is not to be borne that Cyrus, the son of 
Cambyses, should yield ground at the bidding of 
a woman. Cross the river then, and leave in the 
camp the weakest men in our army with plenty 
of food and wine ; and the Massagetai, who have 
but rough and poor fare, will turn greedily to the 
feast made ready for them, and leave thee to win 
glory elsewhere.' 

211 This counsel Cyrus followed, and went on a day's 
j ourney from thebanks of the Araxes. There he 
left the sick and weak of his army ; and the 
Massagetai came upon them and took them, and 
when they had so filled themselves with food and 
wine that they fell asleep, the Persians came back, 
and, slaying many, took many more alive, and 

212 among these the son of Queen Tomyris who was 
their general. But Tomyris, when she heard it, 
sent a herald and said, ' Cyrus, who canst not 
quench thy thirst for blood, be not proud and 
lifted up because thou hast taken my son, not in 
open fight, but by the fruit of the vine with which 
ye so fill and madden yourselves that, as the wine 



THE YOW OF QUEEN TOMYRIS. 21 

goes down into the body, vile words rush up to i, 
your lips. And now hearken unto me. Give me 
back my son and depart scatheless from my land ; 
for, if thou wilt not do this, I swear by the Sun 
who is the lord of the Massagetai, that I will make 
even thee drink thy fill of blood.' But Cyrus 213 
cared not for her words^ and Tomyris gathered all 2U 
her people together and fought with him in a very 
fierce battle^ in which, when their arrows were all 
spent, they smote each other with spears and 
daggers. At last the Persians were beaten, and 
Cyrus himself was killed. Then Tomyris filled a 
skin with human blood, and when she had found 
the body of Cyrus among the dead, she thrust his 
head into the skin ; and thus was fulfilled the 
word which she had spoken to him.^ 

Cyrus had been king for twenty and nine years ; 
and when he died, his son Cambyses ruled in his n 
stead, and made war on Amasis, king of Egypt, i 



' The reign and tlie conquests of Cyrus are nnqiiestionably 
historical; but on the alleged incidents of his life no reliance 
can be placed. The story of his early years is the story of 
Komulus, CEdipus, Telephos, and a host of mythical heroes. The 
name of his grandfather Astyages reappears in that of the Biting 
Snake, Zohak (Max Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, 
vol. ii. p. 169) ; and the details of his later life are almost as 
shadowy as the rest. According to Xenophon (Cyropaedeia, 
viii. 7) he died peacefully in his bed at Pasargada. Either 
then the two versions existed, or Xenophon invented the story 
which he has so well worked up at the end of his romance. 



22 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

III. because, when he asked for his daughter in mar- 
riage, Amasis had sent him not his own child but 
the daughter of Apries, who had been king before 
him, and whom he had himself slain. So Cambyses 
marched against the Egyptians and fought in Pelu- 
10 sium with Psammenitos the king (for Amasis, his 
father, was now" dead), and conquered him in the 
battle. Then going to Sais, he charged his people 

16 to bring before him the body of Amasis and scourge 
it and pluck off the hair ; and when they were not 
able to do this because it had been embalmed, 
Cambyses ordered it to be burnt, which both Per- 
sians and Egyptians hold to be an unholy thing; 
for the Persians think it wrong to give the body of 
a man to the god Fire, and the Egyptians give not 
their dead to that which they hold to be a wild 
beast which eats up all that it can seize and dies 
when its feast is ended. 

17 After this, Cambyses purposed to go against 
many nations ; but his armies prospered not, and 
he did continually things more and more strange 

27 and horrible. He put to death many of the 
Egyptians because they rejoiced at the birth of 
the calf-god Apis. And at last, sending for the 

29 priests and the calf, he smote the calf with a 
dagger, and said to them, ' Poor fools, these then 
are your gods, with flesh and blood, and which 
may be w^ounded by men. Truly the god well 
matches his w^orshippers ; but ye shall smart for 



THE MADNESS OF CAMBYSES. 23 

your insult.' So he scourged the priests^ and the m. 
feast was broken up, and the calf died in the temple 
where it had been smitten. 

For this cause the Egyptians say that Cam- 30 
byses was struck with madness ; while others hold 
that his body had been always unsound, and that 
the disease of his mind was caused by the sick- 
ness of his body. But however this may be, he 
slew his brother Smerdis, and his sister, and then 
he shot the son of Prexaspes to the heart, to show 35 
that he was not mad. At last the Magians arose, 
and one of them, who pretended to be Smerdis, 61 
the king's brother, seized the kingdom, and shared 
it with his brother Patizeithes. But Cambyses was 63 
not able to march against him, for he died childless 65 
at Ekbatana in the Syrian land. 

Then the Magians reigned at Sousa, and the 
power went over to the Modes, until seven men 70 
of the noblest of the Persians conspired against 
the Magians and slew them, and set up Darius, 88 
the son of Hystaspes, on the throne of Cyrus the 
Persian. 

Not many years after these things, it came to 
pass that the Athenians also rose up against their 
tyrants, the children of Peisistratos ; for when v. 55 
Hipparchos had been slain by Harmodios and 
Aristogeiton, his brother Hippias began cruelly to 
oppress them, so that the people obtained help 65 
from Sparta and drove away Hippias, who went 



24 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

to dwell at Sigeion on the banks of the river Ska- 
66 mandros. And as soon as they were free, the 
Athenians became great and strong, and con- 
78 quered many people and took their land. And 
not only in this, but in every way, we see how good 
a thing is freedom/ since even the Athenians were 
in nowise better than their neighbours until they 
had put down their tyrants : for up to that time 
they were faint of heart, because they were toiling 
for a master ; but when they were free, every man 
knew that he was working for himself. 

^ Appendix I. The Athenian Constitution. 



25 



CHAPTER ir. 



THE FALL OF POLYKRATES. — DEMOKEDES AT SOUSA 
AND AT KROTOX. 



I see thy glory like a Bhooting star 
Fall to the base earth from the firmament. 
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west, 
Witnessing storms to come. 

Shakjespeaee. 



Now in the time of Cambyses, king of Persia, Herodotus 
there ruled over the island of Samos a tyrant 
named Polykrates, the son of Aiakes. This man 
had taken the city by force ; and at the first he 
divided it into three parts, and gave two parts 
to his brothers Pantagnotos and Syloson. But 
afterwards he slew the one and drove away the 
other, and so he gained all Samos for himself. 
And when he had gained it, he made an alliance 
with Amasis, king of Egypt, both sending him 
gifts and receiving gifts from him. In a little 
while Polykrates became very great, and his fame 
was noised abroad throughout Ionia and the rest 
of Hellas ; for whithersoever he went all prospered 



26 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

to his hand. And he had one hundred ships of 
fifty oars each, and a thousand bowmen. He 
robbed and plundered all, neither did he respect 
a.nj ; for he said that he should make his friend 
more glad by giving back that which he had 
taken from him, than if he had never taken it 
away from him at all. He conquered also many 
of the islands and many of the cities on the 
mainland ; and in a sea fight he beat the Lesbians 
and took them, when they came forth with all 
their strength to the help of the people of Mi- 
letos ; and he made them dig in chains the great 
moat around the wall in Samos. 
40 Now Amasis, king of Egypt, had heard of the 
well-doing of Polykrates^ and it was a grief of mind 
to him. And when he prospered yet more ex- 
ceedingly, Amasis wrote a letter and sent it to 
Samos, saying, ' Thus saith Amasis to Polykrates. 
It is pleasant to hear of the well-doing of a man 
who is a friend : but thy great success pleases me 
not, for I know that the Deity is jealous. So, for 
myself and for those whom I love, I wish that in 
some things we may prosper and in others fail, 
and thus pass our days with changes from good to 
evil, rather than that we should do well in all 
things. For never yet have I by hearsay or tale 
known one so prospering in everything, who has 
not perished miserably at the last. Heed thou 
then what I say, and do thus for thy great glory. 



POLYKRATES AND THE FISHERMAN. 27 

Seek out that thing for the loss of which thy soul m. 
would most be grieved^ and east it away, so that 
it may never come to mortal hand. And if here- 
after thy good fortune be not mixed with pain, 
remedy it in the manner which I have set before 
thee.' 

So the words of Amasis seemed good to Poly- 41 
krates, and he sought amongst his treasures for 
that which was most precious to him ; and he 
found a seal-ring of emerald stone, set in gold, the 
work of Theodores, the son of Telekles of Samos. 
Then he filled with men a ship of fifty oars, and 
bade them row out into the sea ; and when they 
were far away from the island^ he took the ring 
from off his finger in the sight of all the men and 
cast it into the sea, and went home in great 
sorrow. 

Now, on the fifth or sixth day after these things, 42 
there came to the door of his house a fisherman 
with a large and beautiful fish, and asked to see 
Polykrates. And when he was come into his 
presence, he said, ' king, though I live by the 
work of my hands, I would not carry to the market 
this fish which I have caught, for it seemed to me 
a gift fit for thee ; and therefore I have brought 
it.' And Polykrates was pleased and said to him, 
^ Thou hast done well, and I thank thee for thy 
words and for thy gift, and I bid thee to sup with 
me.' So the fisherman went home rejoicing ; but 



28 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAE. 

f. the servants, as they made ready the fish, found 
within it the seal-ring of Polykrates, and they were 
very glad and took it to him, and told him how 
they had found it. Then it seemed to him a 
marvellous thing ; and he wrote in a letter all that 
he had done and all that had happened unto him, 
and sent it to Amasis to Egypt. 
43 When Amasis had read the letter which came 
from Polykrates, he knew that no man could 
deliver another from that which was to come 
upon him ; and that, for all his well-doing, Poly- 
krates would come to no good end, seeing that 
he found even those things which he threw 
away. So he sent a herald to Samos, and broke 
off the alliance ; and for this reason he brake 
it, that when some evil fate overtook Polykrates, 
his own heart might not be grieved as for a 
friend. 

120 Now Cyrus, the king of Persia, had set up a 
ruler over Sardes, who was called Oroites. This 
man was set on doing an evil deed, for although 
he had suffered no wrong in word or in act from 
Polykrates and had not even seen him, yet he 
sought to slay him, as the more part say, for 
some such cause as this. It chanced that as 
Oroites sat before the doors of the king's palace 
and talked with another Persian, named Mitro- 
bates, who ruled the province in Daskyleion, 
they strove with each other to know which was 



THE CRAFT OF OEOITES. 29 

the braver. And Mitrobates made it a reproach m. 
to Oroites, and said, ^What! dost thou count 
thyself to be a man, seeing thou hast not gained 
for the king the island of Samos which is close 
to thy province, so easy too for anyone to seize, 
since one of the men of the island has taken it 
with fifteen heavy-armed soldiers, and now is 
tyrant therein?' When Oroites heard these 
words, they say that he was grieved at the re- 
buke, and sought not so much to requite him 
who had said these things, as, by any means, 
to slay Polykrates, through whom he was evil 
spoken of. 

So, when Oroites abode in Magnesia which is 122 
on the banks of the river Mseander, he sent a 
messenger to Samos, to learn the mind of Poly- 
krates ; and he came and spake these words : 
'Thus saith Oroites to Polykrates. I hear that 
thou art set on great things, but that thou hast 
not money according to thy designs. Thus then 
do thou, and thou shalt both stablish thyself and 
save me, for King Cambyses seeks to slay me ; 
and this is told me of a surety. Therefore come 
and take me away and my money, and keep part 
of it for thyself, and part of it let me have. So if 
money be that which thou desirest, thou shalt be 
ruler over all Hellas. And if thou believest not 
about my wealth, send the trustiest of thy servants, 
and to him will I show it.' When Polykrates 123 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

"• heard this^ he was glad and resolved to send one,] 
for he greatly desired to have money. So he sent 
a man named Maiandrios, who was his scribe, to 
see it. And when Oroites heard that the Samian 
was at hand, he filled eight vessels with stones, 
all but a little about the brim ; and on the stones 
he placed gold, and fastened the vessels and kept 
them ready. 

So Maiandrios came and saw them, and told it 

1-"^ to Polykrates who made ready to go, although 
the soothsayers forbade him much, and so did his 
friends. And his daughter also sought to stay 
him, because she had seen a vision which be- 

12'^ tokened evil to him ; but he would not hear. 
Thus he despised all counsel and sailed to Oroi- 
tes, taking with him many of his comrades, and 
amongst them Demokedes, the son of Kalliphon 
of Kroton, a physician famed beyond all others of 
his time in the practice of his art. And when 
Polykrates came to Magnesia, he perished mise- 
rably, with an end befitting neither himself nor 
his great designs ; for, saving those who were 
tyrants of Syracuse, no one of the Greek tyrants 
deserved to be compared for greatness to Poly- 
krates. And Oroites sent away those of his fol- 
lowers who were Samians, bidding them to be 
thankful to him for their freedom ; but those 
amongst them who were strangers or slaves he 
kept_^as prisoners taken in war. So ended the 



THE VENGEANCE OF DARIUS. 31 

good fortune of Polykrates in the way which m. 
Amasis, king of Egypt, had foretold ; but, no 126 
long time after, the vengeance of Polykrates 
overtook Oroites. For, when Cambyseswas dead 
and the Magians were reigning, he did no good 
in Sardes to the Persians whose power had been 
taken away by the Modes, but killed Mitrobates 
who ruled in Daskyleion, and his son Kranaspes, 
men of note amongst the Persians, and waxed 
w^anton altogether, so that he slew a messenger 
who came to him from Darius, because he brought 
a message which did not please him. 

So Darius sought to punish Oroites for all his 127 
evil deeds, and chiefly because he had killed Mi- 
trobates. But he did not think fit to make war 
upon him openly, because his own power was not 
yet firm, and because he heard that Oroites was a 
very mighty man and that he was guarded by a 
thousand Persians and ruled in the provinces of 
Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia. So he called together 
the chief men of the Persians and said unto them, 
^ Persians, which of you will do my bidding, 
and slay Oroites or bring him to me alive, for he 
has done the Persians no good, but only great evil ? 
He has killed Mitrobates and his son, and slain the 
messengers whom I sent unto him.' Then there 128 
rose up thirty men, who were each ready to do his 
will; and as they strove which of them should 
do it, Darius ordered them to draw lots, and the 



32 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

HI. lot fell on Bagaios, the son of Artontes. And 
Bagaios wrote many letters and sealed them ail 
with the king's seal^ and went with them to Sardes, 
and gave the letters one by one to the scribe that 
he might read them. When he saw that they gave 
great reverence to the letters and to what was read 
from them, he gave to the scribe one in which 
were written these words, ^0 Persians, King 
Darius forbids you to guard Oroites.' And when 
they heard this, they lowered their spears, and 
Bagaios knew that they would obey the command 
of the king. So he took courage and gave the 
last letter to the scribe, wherein was written, 
^King Darius charges the Persians who are in 
Sardes to slay Oroites.' As soon as the guards 
heard this, they drew their swords and slew him : 
and so the vengeance for Polykrates overtook 
Oroites the Persian. 
129 Then all that belonged to Oroites was taken to 
Sousa : and it came to pass in a little while that 
King Darius in a hunt leaped from his horse and 
twisted his foot ; and it was a very great strain, for 
the ankle bone was moved from its socket. Now, 
as he was wont to have about him Egyptians who 
had great fame for their skill in medicine, he sent 
for these first ; but they forced the foot and 
worked still greater evil. For seven days and 
seven nights Darius had no sleep by reason of the 
pain ; and on the eighth day, as he lay in misery. 



THE aLORY OF DEMOKEDES. 33 

one who by chance had heard in Sardes of the art m 
of Demokedes of Kroton, told it to the king ; and 
he commanded forthwith to bring the man before 
him. And when they had found him lying un- 
cared for somewhere among the slaves of Oroites, 
they led him forth into the midst, dragging his 
chains and clothed with rags. 

Then King Darius asked him if he knew the 130 
art ; and he denied, for he feared that, if he 
showed his skill, he should never see his own land 
again. But Darius saw that he was dealing 
craftily, and commanded those who had led him 
in to bring forth scourges and goads ; and then he 
confessed that he knew the art but poorly, having 
lived for a while with a physician. Then, at the 
bidding of the King, he used the remedies of the 
Grreeks, and, applying gentle means after strong 
ones, caused him to sleep, and in a little while 
made him well again when he never hoped to be 
firm of foot for the time to come. 

Then Demokedes, having healed Darius, had a 132 
very great house in Sousa, and ate at the same table 
with the king : and, save that he might not go to 
Hellas, all things were granted to him ; for, when 
the Egyptians were going to be impaled because 
they were beaten by a Greek, he begged them 
from the king and saved them alive. He also 
ransomed a soothsayer from Elis who had followed 
Polykrates and lay neglected amongst the slaves. 



34 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I". So Demokedes was in very great favour with the 
king. 

133 And it came to pass, not long after these things, 
that there grew a swelling upon the breast of 
Atossa, the daughter ofCj^rus and wife of Darius; 
and it burst and spread wide. So long as it was 
small, she concealed it from shame, and told it to 
none : but when the evil was now great, she sent 
for Demokedes and showed it to him, and he said 
that he would make her well ; but he caused her 
to swear that she would grant him in return that 

134 which he should desire of her. So he healed her ; 
and Atossa, being taught by Demokedes, spake thus 
unto Darius, ^ king, thou sittest still with all 
thy great power, and gainest no nations or king- 
doms for the Persians ; but a man who is young 
and lord of great kingdoms should do some great 
thing, that the Persians may know that it is a man 
who rules over them. Therefore now rouse thy- 
self, whilst thou art young in years, for, as the 
body grows old, the mind grows along with it and 
is dulled for all action.' Then the king answered 
and said, ' Thou hast told me even that which I 
purpose to do, for I have resolved to make a 
bridge and cross over from this continent against 
the Scythians ; and this shall be done shortly.' 
Then said Atossa, ' See now, go not against the 
Scythians first, for thou mayest march against 



THE COUNSEL OF ATOSSA. 35 

these whenever it pleaseth thee ; but go^ I pray m. 
thee, against Hellas : for I have heard the report 
'of them, and I desire to have Laconian maidens, 
'and Argive, and Athenian, and Corinthian, to be 
my servants ; and thou hast one who above all men 
is fitted to show and tell thee all about Hellas — I 
mean him who has healed thy foot.' And Darius 
answered, ^ Since thou wiliest that we first make 
trial against Hellas, it seems to me best to send 
along with this man spies of the Persians w^ho shall 
see and learn all about them and show it unto 
me.' 

Then Darius charged fifteen chosen men of the 135 
Persians to follow Demokedes and go through 
the coast of Hellas, and to see that he did not 
escape, but by all means to bring him back again. 
Then he called Demokedes himself, and com- 
manded him to return to Sousa when he should 
have guided the Persians over all Hellas ; and he 
bade him take, as gifts for his father and his 
brethren, all the movable goods that were in his 
house, saying that he would give him much more 
when he came back again. He promised also to 
send with him a vessel laden with all good things. 
But Demokedes feared that this might be a trap 
to catch him ; so he said that he would leave 
his own goods in the land, that he might have 
them on his return, but that he would take the 

D 2 



ob TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

ship, that he might have whence to give to his 
friends. 
36 So they went down to Sidon, a city of Phoenicia, 
and manned two triremes, and with them a mer- 
chant vessel laden with good things ; and when 
they were ready, they sailed along the coasts of 
Hellas and wrote in a hook all the wonderful 
things that they saw, until they came to Taras ^ 
in Italy. There Aristophilides, the king of the 
Tarentines, who was a friend of Demokedes, 
took off the rudders of the Persian ships, and shut 
lip the Persians themselves in prison, because he 
said that they were spies ; and while they were iii 
this plight, Demokedes fled away to Kroton. So 
now, when he had come to his own city, Aristo- 
philides let the Persians go, and gave back what 
he had taken from them ; and they followed after 
Demokedes, and came to Kroton and found him 
in the market-place. But when they laid hands 
on him, the men of Kroton beat them with clubs 
and took Demokedes away and also the gift- 
vessel which Darius had sent with him. So the j 
Persians sailed back to Asia, and sought not to go 
any more over Hellas, because they had lost their 



^ Tarentura. The Latin names of Greek towns in Italy and 
Sicily were formed from the genitive cases of the Greek names. 
This in the case of Maloeis, Maleventum, led to the singular 
slibstitution of Beneventum, to avoid a name which sounded of 
evil ompD in Latin ears. 



GILLOS OF TARAS. 37 

^uide. But, as they were now going, Demokedes n 
charged them to tell Darius that he had married 
the daughter of Milon, the wrestler. Now the 
'name of Milon was very great with the king ; and 
Demokedes, I think, hastened the marriage^ that 
^he might appear to King Darius to be a notable 
man in his own country also. But the Persians, 138 
as they went back, were wrecked on the lapygian 
shore and made slaves : but a man named Grillos, 
who had been driven away from Taras, ran- 
somed them and took them to King Darius, w^ho 
promised to give him whatsoever he should ask. 
So Gillos told him how he had been banished, 
and besought the king to restore him to his own 
city ; but, fearing to disturb all Hellas, if a great 
army should sail to Italy for his sake, he said that 
the people of Knidos, who were friends of the 
Tarentines, could restore him. So Darius charged 
the people of Knidos to take Grillos to his own 
country, and they went with him to Taras ; but 
they could not persuade the men of that city to 
receive him, and they w^ere not able to compel 
them by force. 

Even so did these things come to pass; ^ and 

* Of the story of Demokedes it may he said that, like many 
other incidents in the narrative of Herodotus, it is in no way 
necessary. All Eastern empires fall as soon as they cease to be 
aggressive ; and Persian aggression had brought about a colli- 
sion with the Asiatic Greeks, and thus rendered inevitable a 



38 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Tii. these were the first Persians who came to Hellas 
from Asia. 

struggle with their western kinsmen, without referring to the 
private life of the royal harem. The inscription at Behistnn 
scarcely bears out the rebuke of Atossa for the unwarlike inac- 
tivity of Darius in the first or in any other part of his reign. 



39 



CHAPTEK III. 



THE INEOAD OE THE PERSIAIS^S INTO SCYTHIA. — THE TALE 
OF AKISTAaORAS AND HISTIATOS. — MILTIADES AND MA- 
RATHON. 



Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame 
The battle-field, where Persia's victim horde 
Pirst bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword, 
As on the morn to distant glory dear, 
When Marathon became a magic word. 

Byron. 



Then King Darius led forth his armies against Herodotus 
the Scythians^ as he was before minded ; and 
they crossed over into Europe at the Thracian 
Bosporos, where a bridge had been built by Man- 87 
drokles the Samian. At the first the king thought 
to have the bridge unloosed, as soon as all should 
have gone over ; but Koes, a man of Mytilene, 90 
besought him to let it remain, lest there should 
be no way to escape if any evil befell them in the 
war. So Darius charged the lonians to keep the 
bridge for sixty days, and then he marched away 
against the Scythians. But he fared not well in 
the war, for the people dwelt in desert regions. 



40 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IV. and it was hard to track them out. And Darius 

131 and his host were in sore distress, when there came 
a man from the Scythians, bringing with him a 
bird and a mouse, a frog and five arrows. But 
when the Persians asked him what these gifts 
might mean, the man said that he had received 
no charge but to give them and to return. Then 

132 the Persians took counsel; and the king thought 
that by these gifts the Scythians yielded up them- 
selves, their land and their water, because the 
mouse lives on the land and the frog in the water, 
and the bird signified the horses of warriors, and 
the arrows showed that they yielded up their 
power. But Grobryas, one of the seven who slew 
the Magians, spake and said, ^ Persians, unless 
ye become birds and fly up into heaven, or go 
down like mice beneath the earth, or, becoming 
frogs, leap into the lake, ye will not escape being 
shot to death by these arrows.' 

135 Then the king feared greatly, and at last he 
commanded to bind all the sick of the army and 
the beasts of burden, and to leave them in the 
camp. So they lit fires and left the sick, and then 

136 hastened away to reach the bridge. But when the 
Scythians heard the cries of the men who had 
been left behind, they knew that the host of the 
Persians had fled away ; and they made haste to 
reach the bridge first. And when they were come 
thither, they called out to the lonians who were 



DAEIUS EETURNS FEOM SCYTHIA. 41 

in the ships to loosen all the bridge and to go iv. 
away. 

Now among the lonians there was an Athenian 137 
named Miltiades, who was tyrant of the Chersone- 
sos ; and he gave counsel to do as the Scj^thians 
bade them, and to set their country free from the 
Persians. But Histiaios, the tyrant of Miletos, 
uesought them to guard the bridge until the king 
should come, and he said, ' ye tyrants, be sure 
of this, that, if we leave the Persians to perish, 
the men of our cities will rise up against us, 
because it is the king who strengthens us in our 
power ; and if he die, neither shall I be able to 
rule in Miletos, nor you in those cities of which 
ye are the tyrants.' Then all gave judgment to 138 
wait for the coming of the king, and to cheat the 
Scythians by pretending to unloose the bridge. So 
the Scythians were deceived and went to look for 140 
the Persians, who came by another way. It was 
night when they reached the bridge ; and when 
they found that the boats were unloosed, they 
feared greatly that the lonians had left them to 
perish. But Darius commanded an Egyptian in 
his army, who had a very loud voice, to call His- 
tiaios of Miletos ; and Histiaios heard the cry, and 
the bridge was made fast again, for the Persians 
to cross over. 

Now, when Darius reached Sardes, he remem- v. ii 
bered the good deed of Histiaios, and he promised 



42 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

to give him whatsoever he should ask. So he 
. asked for Myrkinos in the Edonian land, because 

23 he wished to build a city there ; and he went thither 
and began to make the placfe strong. But while 
he was so doing, Megabazos^ the general of Darius, 
heard it ; and as soon as he came to Sardes, he 
spake thus unto the king : ^ king, what hast thou 
done ? Thou hast given to a Greek, who is wise 
and crafty, to have a city in Thrace, where there 
is much timber for building ships, and blades for 
oars, and mines of silver ; and round it there are 
many people, both Grreek and barbarian, who will 
take him for a chief and do his will by night and 
by day. See then that he make not war against 
thee in time to come.' 

24 So King Darius sent a messenger to Histiaios, 
to Myrkinos, and said, ' Histiaios, thus saith 
King Darius. I have pondered it well, and I 
find none who is better minded to me and to my 
kingdom than thou art. This I know, for I have 
learnt it not by words, but in deed. And now I 
purpose to do great things. Come therefore to 
me in anywise, that I may intrust them to thee.' 
So Histiaios went to Sardes, for he was proud 
that he was to be the king's counsellor. And 
Darius said to him, ^ Histiaios, there is nothing 
more precious than a wise and kind friend ; and 
I know that this thou art to me. So now thou 
must leave Miletos and thy Thracian city, and 



DARIUS HELPS THE NAXIANS. 43 

come with me to Sousa. There thou shalt sit at 
my table, and all that I have shall be thine.' So 
Darius left his own brother Artaphernes to be 25 
ruler over Sardes, and went with Histiaios to 3o 
Sousa. And Aristagoras, who was brother-in-law 
and cousin to Histiaios, was left to rule in 
Miletos. 

Now about this time the people of the isle of 
Naxos rose up and drove out some of the nobles, 
who came to ask help from Aristagoras. But 
he said, ' I am not able to conquer the Naxians 
by myself ; but Artaphernes, who rules in Sardes, 
is my friend, and he is the brother of the king. 
This man, I think, will do what wo desire.' So 
he went to Artaphernes, and promised him much 31 
money and great gifts if he would let him have 
one hundred ships to go against Naxos. And 
Artaphernes promised to give him two hundred, 
if it should please the king. When Darius heard 
it, he was glad ; and Artaphernes charged Mega- 
bates to go with the ships to Naxos. So he took 32 
Aristagoras and the Naxians up from Miletos, 33 
and sailed to Chios, that he might cross over from 
thence to Naxos. But it happened that there 
was no watch kept that night in aMyndian vessel : 
and Megabates was wroth, and made them place 
the captain of the ship in one of the large oar- 
holes, so that his head hung over the side of 
the ship. Then Aristagoras went and prayed 



44 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Megabates to let the Myndian go ; but he would 
not. So Aristagoras set him free himself. Then 
Megabates was yet more angry, but Aristagoras 
came forth and said, ^ What hast thou to do with 
these things ? Hath not Artaphernes sent thee 
to obey me, and to go whithersoever I may bid 
thee ? ' Then Megabates sent secretly to the Nax- 
ians, and warned them ; and they brought much 
food into their city, and made the walls strong, 
so that the Persians were unable to take it. Pre- 
sently the money which Megabates brought with 
him was all spent, and the money of Aristagoras 
was also gone; and yet the Naxians were not 
35 subdued. So Aristagoras could not fulfil the 
promise which he made to Artaphernes, and he 
was greatly troubled, for he knew not how he 
should be able to pay the men ; and he feared 
that Megabates was slandering him, that he might 
not rule any more in Miletos. Wherefore he 
thought to rebel against the king; and just at 
this time there came from Sousa a messenger from 
Histiaios with marks upon his head, telling him 
to revolt from the king ; for Histiaios knew not 
how to tell him safely in any other way, because 
the roads were guarded. So he shaved the head 
of the trustiest of his slaves, and marked letters 
thereon, and waited till the hair was grown ; and 
then he sent him to Miletos, bidding him only 
tell Aristagoras to shave off his hair and look at 



AKISTAGORAS REBELS AGAINST DARIUS. 45 

his head. This did Histiaios because he was 
wearied at being so long kept in Sousa, and he 
hoped that, if Aristagoras rebelled, he should be 
sent down to the sea, but if Miletos revolted not, 
he never thought to see it again. 

Then Aristagoras rebelled openly against the 37 
king, and he said that he would no more be tyrant 
in his own city. He put down the tyrants in the 
other cities also, and made them all free, that they 
might help him more cheerfully against the king. 
And when he had done this, he went in a trireme 
to Lacedaemon, for he needed some great help in 
this war. 

Now at this time Kleomenes, the son of Anax- 39 
andridas, w^as king in Sparta ; and Aristagoras 49 
came to him, and besought him to help the 
lonians, who were men of the same blood. He 
told him also how easy it was to conquer the 
Persians, and how they might go to Sousa and 
plunder the treasures of the great king, and be- 
come as rich as Zeus himself. Then Kleomenes 
said, ' In three days we will give our answer ;' 
and on the third day Kleomenes asked how long oO 
time it would take to go to Sousa from the sea ; 
and Aristagoras said, 'Three months.' Then 
the king said hastily, ^ stranger of Miletos, 
depart from Sparta before the sun goes down ; 
thou art no friend to the Lacedaemonians, when 
thou seekest to lead them three months' journey 



46 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

V. 51 from the sea.' But Aristagoras took an olive- 
branch in his hand, and went into the house of 
Kleomenes; and when he saw him, he prayed 
him to send away his little daughter Grorgo, who 
was standing by : but Kleomenes bade him think 
not of the child. Then Aristagoras began to urge 
him with gifts, beginning with ten talents ; and 
when Kleomenes refused, he went on to more, 
till he promised him fifty talents, and the child 
cried out, ^ Father, the stranger will corrupt you, 
unless you rise up and go.' Then Kleomenes 
went away, and Aristagoras could tell him no 
more of the journey to the great king. 

So he left Sparta and went to Athens, which was 

now free, for the Athenians had risen up against 

55 the sons of Peisistratos, and Hippias had fled 

with his children away to Sigeion, which is on 

the banks of the river Skamandros ; and there he 

96 sought if by any means he might bring Athens 
under the power of Artaphernes and Darius, 

97 Then Aristagoras besought aid from the Athe- 
nians, and he urged them so, that at length they 
promised to send twenty ships, and appointed 
Melanthios to be the admiral ; and these ships 
were the beginning of evils both to the Grreeks 

98 and to the barbarians. So Aristagoras sailed back 
to Asia ; and when he came to Miletos, he re- 
mained there himself, but he sent his brother 
Charopinos to lead the lonians against Sardes. 



SARDES IS BUENT. 47 

And when they reached Ephesos, they left their v. lOO 
ships in Koressos, and went up thence with a great 
host, having the Ephesians for their guides. So 
they went along the banks of the Kaystros, and 
took all Sardes, except the Akropolis which ^Ar- 
taphernes himself held with no small number of 
men. But the lonians did not plunder the city lOi 
when they had taken it. For most of the houses 
in Sardes were made of reeds, and even those that 
were built of brick had roofs of reeds. One of 
these a soldier happened to set on fire, and the 
flame went from house to house, until it spread 
over the whole city. Then the Persians and the 
Lydians ran down to the market-place, which is 
by the river Paktolos ; and when the lonians saw 
this, they were afraid, and retreated fast to the 
mountain which is called Tmolos ; and then, as 
the night came on, they went away to their 
ships. 

So Sardes was burnt, and in it a temple of 102 
Kybebe, the goddess of the country; and the 
Persians always spake of this burning, when they 
burnt afterwards the temples of the Greeks. 
Then the Persians followed after the lonians, and 
overtook them in Ephesos, and beat them in a 
battle with great slaughter ; and those who es- 
caped from the fight were scattered among the 
cities. 

After this, the Athenians altogether forsook 103 



48 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

r. the lonians, and would listen no more to the 
prayers of Aristagoras. But the lonians went on 
no less to make war against the king, and sub- 
dued Byzantion, and made alliance with the men 

104 of Kaunos. And all the Cyprians joined them, 
except the people of Amathous^ who were besieged 
by Onesilos, the son of Grorgos, because they 
would not rebel against the king. 

105 And when it was told to Darius that Sardes 
had been taken and burnt by the Athenians and 
lonians, and that the man who had guided them 
and woven these things together was the Milesian 
Aristagoras, they say that he took no heed to the 
lonians, because he well knew that they should 
not escape for their rebellion, but he asked only 
who the Athenians were. And when he was told, 
he called for a bow, and fitted an arrow to it ; and 
as he shot it into the air, he said, ^ Zeus, suffer 
me to avenge myself on the Athenians.' Then 
he charged one of his servants to say to him 
thrice during every meal, ' king, remember the 

106 Athenians.' After this, he summoned Histiaios the 
Milesian, Avhom he had now so long kept at Sousa, 
and said to him, ^ Histiaios, I hear that the man 
to whom thou hast given thy city has been doing 
strange things. He has brought over men from 
Europe to help the lonians, whom I shall punish; 
and by their aid he has deprived me of Sardes. 
How can all this seem good to thee ? and without 






THE WEATH OF DARIUS. 49 

thy counsels how could such a thing have been v. 
done ? See that thou bring not thyself into blame 
afresh.' Then answered Histiaios, ' king, what 
hast thou said — that I have devised anything from 
which harm may come to thee ? Why should I do 
thus, and of what do I stand in need ? That which 
thou hast^ I have also ; and I am thought worthy to 
listen to thy counsels. But if Aristagoras is thus 
doings be sure that he is doing it of himself. Still, 
I do not believe the tale at all. Only, if it be 
true, see what thou hast done by taking me away 
from the sea ; for, when I am out of sight, the 
lonians may well do that which they have long 
wished to do. Had I been there, not one city 
would have stirred itself. Send me, then, quickly 
to Ionia, and I will put all things right again, and 
give Aristagoras into thy hands. Yea, I swear by 
the gods whom the king worshippeth, that I will 
not put off the tunic in which I shall go down to 
Ionia, before I bring under thy power the mighty 
island of Sardinia.' Then Darius let him go, 
having charged him to come back again to Sousa 
when all this should be done. 

So the war went on; but at length the Cyprians 113 
were beaten in a great battle, and having been 116 
free for one year, were then made slaves again. 
Then the Persians took many cities on the Helles- 
pont, and defeated the Karians in two battles, so 
that Aristagoras was afraid, because he had dis- 124 

£ 



50 TALE OF THE GEEAT PEESIAN WAR. 

V. turbed Ionia and was not able to carry out his 
126 great counsels. So he gave Miletos in charge to 
Pythagoras, a man of great repute among the 
citizens; and, taking with him everyone who 
wished to go, he sailed to Thrace, and seized on 
a part of the country. But as he was going out 
from it, he was attacked by the Thracians ; and 
Aristagoras was destroyed, and all his army. 
VI. 1 Now, when Histiaios reached Sardes from Sousa, 
Artaphernes asked him why the lonians had re- 
belled against the king ; and Histiaios said that he 
could not tell, and that he marvelled at all the 
things which had happened. But Artaphernes 
knew the reason well, and saw that he w^as deal- 
ing craftily ; so he said, ' Histiaios, thou hast 
thus much to do with these matters. Thou didst 
sew this sandal, and Aristagoras hath put it on.' 
Then Histiaios was afraid, and when the night 
2 came he ran away to sea, and fled to Chios. But 

5 when he desired to go to Miletos, the people would 
not receive him : so he went to Mytilene and got 
some ships, and sailed away to Byzantion. 

11 But the lonians would not agree together; and 
when there was a battle between them and the 
Persians on the sea before Miletos, the Samians 

14 fled away treacherously, and the Lesbians followed 
them. So the Persians conquered in the fight, and 
took Miletos in the sixth year after the rebellion 
of Aristagoras ; and the people were made slaves. 



DEATH OF HISTIAIOS. 51 

After tMs Histiaios went to Thasos, and besieged v 
the town in that island. But when his men 28 
wanted food, he crossed over one day to Atarneus 
in the Mysian land ; and Harpagos, the Persian 
general, took him alive after he had landed, and 
slew almost all his army. Now, if Histiaios had 30 
been sent away alive to King Darius, he would 
not, I think, have suffered any harm, but his tres- 
pass would have been forgiven him ; but now, for 
fear of this, and lest he should again become great 
with the king, Artaphernes and Harpagos put him 
to death at Sardes, and sent his head to Sousa. 
And when Darius heard it, he rebuked them be- 
cause they had not brought Histiaios alive ; and 
he charged them to wash the head and adorn it 
well, and to bury it as the head of one who had 
done much good to himself and to the Persians. 

Thus were the lonians made slaves for the third 32 
time. And after this King Darius made trial of 43 
the Greeks, to see whether they were minded to 
make war against him or to yield themselves up. 
So he sent heralds all over Hellas to ask earth 
and water for the king ; and others he sent to his 
own cities which were on the sea-coast, charging 
them to make ready long ships and vessels to carry 
horses. 

But before this, strange things had happened 67 
at Sparta, for the two kings were not friendly 
towards each other, and one of them, who was 

£ 2 



52 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

named Demaratos, was put away from being king ; 
and he fled away from Sparta to the Modes. 

94 So time went on ; and the Persian was accom- 
plishing his own work, for every day his servant 
bade him remember the Athenians, and the child- 
ren of Peisistratos were ever at hand to slander 
them. And Darius named two generals to go to 
Athens and Eretria, — Datis, a Mede, and Arta- 
phernes, his own brother's son ; and he charged 
them to make the men of Athens and Eretria 
slaves, and to bring them all before him. So these 

95 generals set out, and when they came to the Aleian 
plain of the Kilikian land, they were joined by all 
the ships which Darius had ordered his subject 
cities to make ready. And when they had put all 
the men and horses on board, they sailed with six 
hundred triremes to Ionia ; but after that, they 
did not go along the mainland towards the Helles- 
pont and Thrace, but sailed from Samos through 
the islands, for they feared the voyage round 

44 Mount Athos, because, in the year before, Mar- 
donios had lost there about three hundred ships 

95 and more than twenty thousand men. And they 
wished also to take Naxos, because they had not 

96 been able to take it with Aristagoras ; but as they 
came near, the Naxians fled from their city, and 
the Persians made slaves of all that they found 
in it, and burnt the temples and the town ; and 
they sailed against the other islands also. 



THE VOYAGE OF DATIS AND ARTAPHERNES. 53 

Now the Delians had fled away to Tenos^ and vi. 9 
Datis would not suffer his ships to anchor at the 
island, but kept them opposite in Kheneia. And 
he asked where the men of Delos were, and sent 
a herald to them, saying, ' holy men, why have 
ye thus fled away ? for thus hath it been com- 
manded me of the king, and so is my mind, to 
hurt not the land in which the two gods were born, 
neither the country nor any that dwell in it.' So 
he offered three hundred talents of incense upon 
the altar, and sailed away with his army to Eretria, 98 
taking with him the lonians and ^olians. And 
immediately after this, as the Delians said, the 
island was shaken for the first time ; nor has it 
ever been shaken since. But this was assuredly a 
sign from the gods of all the evils that were com- 
ing on the earth. 

But the Eretrians had heard that the Persians lOO 
were coming ; and they sent to Athens to ask for 
help, and the Athenians gave them four thousand 
men. But the men of Eretria were divided in 
their counsels, and some wished to fly to the 
mountains, and others sought to betray their city 
to the Persians, hoping each for his reward. And 
when Aischines the son of Nothon, who was chief 
among the Eretrians, heard this, he prayed the 
Athenians to depart to their own land, that they 
might not perish also ; and so they crossed over 
to Oropos. Then the Persians came and moored lOi 



54 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. their ships at Tamynai, and Choireai, and Aigili^ 
and made ready to attack the enemy ; but th< 
Eretrians sought only to defend their wall. S' 
the onset began, and for six days there fell man; 
on both sides ; and on the seventh Euphorbos an( 
Philagros, men of repute amongst the citizens 
betrayed the city to the Persians : and they en- 
tered it and plundered the temples and burn^ 
them, in vengeance for the temples which had been 
burnt in Sardes ; and they made the people slaves 
according to the command of King Darius. 

102 After a few days, the Persians sailed onward to 
Attica, thinking that they would do to the Athe- 

^ nians as they had done to the men of Eretria ; 
and Hippias, the son of Peisistratos, guided them 
to Marathon, because that was the best place in 

103 Attica to encamp with h'orses. When the Athenians 
heard this, they also hastened to Marathon ; and 
they had ten generals, of whom the tenth was 

104 Miltiades, the son of Kimon, who had lately come 
from Chersonesos. 

105 But before they left the city, the generals had 
sent to Sparta a herald named Pheidippides, who, 
as he told the Athenians, met the god Pan upon his 

106 journey, when he had come near to Tegea. And 
on the day after he left Athens, Pheidippides 
reached Sparta and went to the rulers and said, 
'0 Lacedaemonians, the Athenians pray you to help 
them, and not to suffer a most ancient city of the 
Greeks to be enslaved by barbarians ; for Eretria 



THE PERSIANS AT MARATHON. 55 

has been already taken, and Hellas is made weaker tj 
by a notable city.' Then the Spartans wished to 
aid the Athenians, but they could not do so at 
once without breaking the law, for it was the ninth 
day of the month, and they could not go out while 
the moon was not yet full.^ 

Thus the Spartans waited till the moon should 107 
be full, while Hippias, the son of Peisistratos, 
guided the barbarians to Marathon. And when 1O8 
the Athenians were drawn out in the sacred ground 
of Herakles, the Plataians came to their help with 
all their strength; for the Plataians had given 
themselves up to the Athenians, and had received 
much help from them against the Thebans. 

But the minds of the generals were divided, and 109 
some of them were not willing to fight, for they 
feared the numbers of the Medes. So Miltiades 
hastened to the polemarch, Kallimachos of Aphid- 

^ The difficulties in the way of this story are formidable. 
The distance between Athens and Sparta is 150 miles ; and the 
track is such that over a great part of it the stoutest walker at 
the present day could not travel at a quicker rate than three 
miles and a half in the hour. According to the tale the journey 
was performed within forty-eight hours ; and unless the courier 
set out at midnight and arrived at midnight, and also walked 
without stopping to sleep, it cannot have been done in much less 
than this time. As the age of the moon is given, he must have 
walked in darkness for half the night (at this season nearly as 
long as the day) even if he took no rest, but it is perhaps im- 
possible to walk for forty-eight hours without sleeping. See an 
article in the ' Saturday Eeview,' November 4, 1865, p. 578. 



56 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

^i. nai, (for the polemarchs in old time voted even as 
did the generals), and said to him, ' It depends on 
thee, Kallimachos, either to bring Athens into 
slavery, or to deliver it and leave behind a me- 
morial for all time such as has been left not even 
by Harmodios and Aiistogeiton ; for now are the 
Athenians in such peril as they have never been 
in from the time that they were a people ; and if 
they yield to the Modes, we know what they will 
suffer at the hands of Hippias ; but if our city 
gain the victory, it will become the first of all the 
cities of Hellas. Now, of our generals one half 
are not willing to fight ; and if we fight not, I fear 
that the Athenians may follow evil counsels and 
take the side of the Modes ; but if we fight at 
once, then, with the equal aid of the gods, I think 
that we shall be conquerors in the battle. All 
this depends on thee. If thy mind is as mine is, 
then is our country free, and our city the first of 
all in Hellas : but if not, then shall befall us the 
contrary evils to those good things which I have 
set before thee.' 

110 Thus Miltiades gained over Kallimachos, and 
it was decreed that they should fight, and each 
general, as his day of command came, gave it over 
to Miltiades; but he chose not to attack them 

111 until his own day came. And on that day he drew 
out the Athenians in battle-array ; and the pole- 
march Kallimachos (for such was then the law of 



THE EATTLE OF MARATHON. 57 

dhe Athenians) led the right wing. Then came v 
Itthe tribes in their order ; and the Plataians were 
(drawn up last upon the left wing. And from this 
■it is that, whenever the Athenians offer solemn 
sacrifice, the herald prays for all blessings on the 
Athenians and Plataians together. Now when 
the army w^as drawn up, so as to face all the host 
of the Medes, the middle part of it was only a 
few men deep and was very weak ; but both the 
wings were strong. 

So, when the victims gave good omen, the Athe- 112 
nians began the onset, and went running towards 
the barbarians. Now the space between the two 
armies was not less than two furlongs ; and the 
Persians, when they saw them coming, made ready 
to receive them ; but they thought the Athenians 
mad because, being so few in number, they came 
on furiously without either bows or horses. Then 
the Athenians, when they fell upon the barbarians, 
fought well ; for they were the first Grreeks, that I 
know of, who charged the enemy running and 
endured the sight of the Median dress, for up to 
this time the Grreeks had dreaded even to hear 
their name. 

Long time they fought in Marathon ; and in the 1 13 
middle the barbarians were victorious, where the 
Persians and the Sakians were drawn up. These 
broke the centre of the Athenians, and drove them 
back on the plain ; but the Athenians and Pla- 



58 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

^i. taians had the best on both the wings. Still thej^ 
would not follow the barbarians who were running 
away, but they closed on the enemy who had 
broken their centre, and fought until they over- 
came them. Then they went after the Persians 
as they fled, and slaughtered them until they 
reached the sea ; and then they tried to set the 
ships of the Persians on fire. In this struggle the 

114 polemarch Kallimachos fell fighting bravely, and 
there died also Stesilaos, one of the generals, and 
Kynegeiros, the son of Euphorion, whose hand was 
cut off by an axe when he had seized the stern- 

115 ornament of one of the ships. In this way the 
Athenians took seven ships ; with the rest the 
barbarians beat out to sea, and, taking up the 
Eretrian slaves, sailed round Sounion, wishing to 

116 reach the city before the Athenians could return 
thither. But the Athenians ran with all speed, 
and, reaching the city first, encamped in the 
Herakleion which is in Kynosarges, as they had 
encamped in the Herakleion at Marathon. And 
the barbarians lay for a while with their ships off 
Phaleron, which was at that time the port of the 
Athenians, and then sailed back to Asia. 

117 In this battle at Marathon^ there died of the 

* Of the battle of Marathon we must content ourselves with 
knowing that it was fought and won by the Athenians and 
Plataians. Of the exact local and military details we cannot 
speak with any confidence. Later writers had confessedly no 



THE YICTORY OF THE ATHENIANS. 59 

[.barbarians about six thousand four hundred men, 
and of the Athenians one hundred and ninety-two. 
And in the battle there happened a marvellous 
'thing. As Epizelos, an Athenian, was fighting 
J bravely, he was struck blind without hurt or wound 
in all his body, and remained blind ever after ; 
and I have heard him tell how in the battle there 
stood before him a tall hoplite, whose beard over- 
shadowed all his shield, and that this phantom 
passed by himself, but slew his comrade. 

better means of information than Herodotus. Hippias, we are 
told, led the Persians to Marathon as being the best ground in 
Attica for the action of horsemen ; but in the battle no cavalry- 
are mentioned. Colonel Leake thinks that the Persian general 
may have sent away his cavalry to a neighbouring plain with 
orders to remain motionless in its cantonments. Dr. Thirlwall 
dismisses the statement of Nepos (that Miltiades protected his 
position from the attacks of the Persian cavalry by felled trees 
obstructing the approach) as one which must have been made 
also by Herodotus if the fact had been known to him. Opinions 
differ likewise on the reasons for the ill success of the Greek 
centre ; and finally Mr. G-rote, remarking that both Colonel 
Leake and Mr. Pinlay try to point out the exact ground occupied 
by the two armies but differ in the spot chosen, adds that he 
cannot think that there is sufficient evidence to be had in favour 
of any spot. History of Greece, Part 11. ch. xxxvi. But these, 
after all, are matters of very little moment as compared with the 
issue and results of the battle. That the great question of 
Hellenic freedom or barbaric tyranny was settled on this 
memorable field, that this battle decided the issue of the subse- 
quent invasion, and that the glory of this victory belonged 
altogether to the men of Athens and Plataiai, are facts which 
cannot be disputed. 



60 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VI. 119 So Datis and Artaphernes sailed away to Asi| 
and led the Eretrians, whom they had made 
slaves, up to Soiisa. Now King Darius had been 
very wroth with the men of Eretria, because they 
had begun the wrong; but when he saw them 
brought before him as slaves, he did them no 
harm, but made them to dwell in the Kissian 
land in his own region which is called Arderikka: 
and there they were living up to my time, speak- 
ing still their old language. 
120 Now when the moon was full, the Lacedaemo- 
nians set out in haste, and they reached Attica on 
the third day after they left Sparta. But although 
they were too late for the battle, still they wished 
to look upon the Medes. So they went on to 
Marathon, and saw them ; and they praised the 
Athenians for all that they had done, and went 
away again to their own home. 
VII. 1 So the tale of the battle of Marathon was 
told to King Darius the son of Hystaspes. And, 
though he had been very bitter against the Athe- 
nians because they had taken Sardes, yet now he 
was much more wroth, and desired yet more 
eagerly to go against Hellas. And straightway 
he sent heralds to all the cities, and bade them 
make ready an army, and to furnish much more 
than they had done before, both ships and horses 
and corn. And while the heralds were going 
round, all Asia was shaken for three years ; but 



THE DEATH OF DAEIUS. 61 

in the fourth year the Egyptians, who had been vn. 

Imade slaves by Cambyses, rebelled against the 

IPersians, and then the king sought only the more 

kehemently to go both against the Egyptians and 

against the Greeks. So he named Xerxes his son 

I to be king over the Persians after himself, and* 

made ready for the march : but in the year after 

the revolt of Egypt, Darius himself died, having 

reigned in all six-and-thirty years ; nor was he 

suffered to punish the Athenians, or the Egyptians 

who had rebelled against him. 



62 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE COUNCIL OF XERXES. — HIS DEEAM AND ITS ISSUE. — 
THE TALE OF PYTHIOS; HIS RICHES^ AND CHILDREN. — 
THE MARCH OF THE ARMY AND THE PASSAGE OF THE 
HELLESPONT. 



XpycJ'oyovov yeveas IcroOeos (pcos. 
Kvavovv 5* ofiixaCL Xevcrarcov (poviov ^epyfjLa ^paKovTOS, 
iroKvx^ip KoX TToKvvavrrjs '2,vpL6v & apfxa dicaKCDV, 
iirdyei ^ovpiK\vrois aydpd(rL ro^6hafxvov''KpT]. 

JESCHYLUS. 

\ 

Herodotus When Xeixes became kinsr in the stead of Darius 

VII. 5 "-^ 

his father, he sought not at all to go against the 
Athenians firsts and he made ready his army for 
Egypt. But there was with him a Persian whom 
he had in great honour^ Mardonios the son of 
Gobryas, who was cousin to Xerxes and son of the 
sister of Darius. And he came to the king and 
said : ' king, it is not seemly that the Athe- 
nians, who have done much wrong to the Persians, 
should not suffer for their evil doing. Still do 
now that which thou hast in hand ; and when 
thou hast subdued Egypt, then go against Athens, 
that men may speak well of thee, and that none 



THE PROPHECIES OF ONOMAKRITOS. 63 

pay dare henceforth to come against thy land.' ^n. 
Thus he urged the king^ and he added also that 
Europe was a very fair country^ rich in trees and 
.Tuits, and that no man ought to possess it but the 
jreat king. 

But Mardonios spoke thus chiefly because he ^ 
I desired a new order of things and wished to be 
himself the ruler of Hellas. And in time he pre- 
vailed on Xerxes to do this, for other things hap- 
pened which worked together for this end. There 
came heralds from the Aleuadai, who were princes 
of Thessaly, inviting the king ; and the children 
of Peisistratos came to Sousa^ bringing with them 
an Athenian soothsayer named Onomakritos, who 
urged him on with oracles from Mousaios. This 
man said nothing of any oracles which spoke of 
hurt to the barbarian, but told him only that a 
Persian was destined to make a bridge over the 
Hellespont, and how he should march against 
Hellas. 

So, in the second year after the death of Darius, 7 
Xerxes marched with his army against Egypt ; and 
when he had subdued the whole land and made 
its slavery worse than it had been under his 
father, he gave it to his brother 'Achaimenes to 
rule over, whom afterwards Inaros, the son of 
Psammitichos the Libyan, slew. After this, before 8 
he gathered his armies to go against Athens, 
Xerxes called together the chiefest of the Persians, 



64 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

that he might learn their judgments and tell them 
his will. And when they were assembled, Xerxes 
said : ' Persians, I am not going to bring before 
you any new custom, but I only adopt that which 
I have received ; for, as I learn from our elders, 
we have never been at rest from the time that we 
took the chief power from the Medes, when Cyrus 
dethroned Astyages. So the god leads us on, and 
good fortune ever attends us. But of those na- 
tions which Cyrus and Cambyses and my father 
Darius subdued, I need not speak, for ye know 
them well. And since I received the throne, I 
have striven not to fall behind them in this honour 
nor to acquire less power for the Persians. Nor 
do I think that I have failed. Wherefore I have 
now called you together, that I may tell you of 
the things which I am minded to do. I purpose 
to make a bridge over the Hellespont and to march 
with my army through Europe against Hellas, to 
punish the Athenians for all the evils that they 
have done to me and to my father. Now ye know 
that my father was making ready to go against 
these men. But he is dead, neither was he per- 
mitted to punish them ; and therefore, on his 
behalf and on that of the Persians, I will never 
cease before I take and burn Athens, because they 
began the wrong. First they came to Sardes with 
Aristagoras the Milesian, my slave, and burnt the 
temples and the groves ; and what wrongs they did 



XERXES DECLARES HIS PURPOSE AGAINST ATHENS. 65 

to those whom Datis and ArtapherDes led against 
them to Marathon, ye all know. Therefore am I 
determined to march against them ; and I think 
that we shall gain much by going, for if we 
conquer these men and their neighbours who dwell 
in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall give 
to the power of the Persians the wide bounds of 
heaven. The sun shall look upon no border-lands 
to ours, but I will make all nations to be one 
country for you, when I have passed through the 
whole of Europe. For I believe that no city and 
no nation will dare to face us in battle, as soon as 
these men have been put out of the way ; and so 
the innocent and the guilty shall bear our yoke 
alike. And now if ye do thus, ye will please me 
well. Come, all of you, readily and quickly, when 
I name the day for meeting ; and the man who 
comes with the best equipments, I will repay with 
the most honourable gifts. But that I may not 
appear to follow my own counsels, I place the 
matter before you, that all, who w^ll, may give 
their judgment.' 

Then Mardonios answered : ^ king, not only 9 
art thou the best of all Persians that have lived, 
but of all that ever shall be ; for thou hast given 
the best and truest counsel, and wilt not suffer the 
lonians who dwell in Europe to mock us. Strange 
indeed would it be if, when from mere lust of power 
we have made slaves of the Sakai and the Indians, 



66 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VII the Ethiopians and Assyrians and other nations 
who never did us wrong, we should fail to punish 
the Athenians who have begun the quarrel. For 
what do we fear? Is it their number? is it their 
wealth or their power ? We know their way of 
fighting, we know their weakness, and we have 
conquered their kinsfolk, who dwell in our land 
and are called lonians and ^olians and Dorians. 
Yea^ even I myself marched against these men at 
thy father's bidding ; and though I came as far as 
Macedonia and so was but a little way from Athens^ 
not one of them came out against me to battle. 
Yet these Grreeks, I hear, are wont to make wars 
utterly without counsel, — so mad and so blind are 
they, — for, when they have declared war, they 
choose out the richest and the fairest si)ot^ and 
thither they go and fight, so that the conquerors 
gain only evil. Of the conquered I speak not : 
they are utterly destroyed. Now these men, as 
speaking the same language, ought to settle their 
quarrels by words and messengers, and in any way 
rather than by fighting ; but if fight they must, 
they should choose out those spots to fight in where 
it may be hardest to reach each other. And so, 
because they are thus mad, they never came out 
to meet me, though I went as far as Macedonia. 
And now will anyone dare to face thee, king, 
with thy great army from Asia and all thy ships ? 
Sure I am that the Greeks are not so desperate. 



ARTABANOS WITHSTANDS MARDONIOS. 6/ 

But if I am wrong, and in their rash folly they ^ 
come out to battle, they will find that of all men 
we are the bravest. Still we must leave nothing 
untried, for things come not of their own accord, 
but follow always the efforts of men.' 

So Mardonios, having ended his flattery, sat lO 
down ; and all the Persians kept silence, nor did 
any dare to give another judgment, until Arta- 
banos, the son of Hystaspes, the uncle of Xerxes, 
rose up and said : ' king, none can choose the 
better judgment, unless two have been set forth; 
even as we cannot distinguish pure gold by itself, 
but when we place it with other gold, then we 
see which is the better. Now I urged my brother 
Darius, thy father, not to march against the 
Scythians, who have no city in all their land. 
But he thought that he could conquer these 
wandering tribes, and would not listen to me. 
So he went, and lost many brave men, and came 
home again. But thou, king, art going against 
men much better than the Scythians, — men who 
are said to be most brave and strong both by sea 
and land. And it is right that I should say why 
we ought to fear them. Thou sayest that thou 
wilt make a bridge over the Hellespont, and 
carry thine army through Europe against Hellas : 
and so may we be beaten either by land or by 
sea, or even on both ; for the men are said to 
be strong, and it would seem that they are, if 

f2 



68 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



II 



by themselves alone the Athenians destroyed the 
great host that landed withDatis and Artaphernes 
at Marathon. Yet in that fight they conquered 
only by land ; but if they beat us by sea also 
and sail to the Hellespont and break up the 
bridge, then it becomes terrible indeed. Yet it 
is no wisdom of my own that teaches me this^ 
but the thought of that mishap which all but 
overtook us when thy father made a bridge over 
the Thracian Bosporos and the river Istros, and 
went against the Scythians: for with all their 
might the Scythians prayed the lonians, who 
were guarding the bridge, to unloose it; and if 
Histiaios^ the tyrant of Miletos, had followed theJ 
the counsel of the other tyrants, the Persians 
would have been utterly destroyed. Still it is 
fearful even to hear that the fate of the kin, 
was in one man's hand. Eush not then into s< 
great a daDger_, when there is no need ; but hee^ 
my words. Send away this assembly, and whe: 
thou hast thought over these matters again, the: 
proclaim thy judgment. To take good counse' 
is indeed a gain ; for even if anything goes 
against it, none the less was the good counsel 
taken, but it hath been overborne by chance. 
But the man who has counselled ill, if he prosper, 
receives a godsend ; yet none the less was his 
counsel evil. Thou seest how the deity smites 
those creatures which hold themselves high, but 



THE WORDS OF ARTABANOS. 69 

the little ones do not trouble him at all ; and 
how the lightning falls on the highest houses and 
the tallest trees, for the haughty things are ever 
made to bow down. So may a great army be 
destroyed by a little one, for when fear enters 
their heart, they perish shamefully ; for the deity 
will suffer none to have proud thoughts but 
himself. So, then, to urge on matters will bring 
mishaps, and from these great hurt may follow ; 
but in delay there is good, which time will 
discover, even if we may not be able to see it 
now. Such is my counsel to thee, king. But 
thou, Mardonios, son of Gobryas, speak no more 
vain words about the Grreeks, who deserve not 
to be evil spoken of; for by thy slanders thou 
movest the king yet more to go against them — 
and this, I think, is the very reason of thy 
counsel. Let it not be so any more, for slander 
is a terrible thing. In it there are two who do 
wrong, and one who suffers it ; for the slanderer 
injures an absent man by his words, and he who 
listens does wrong if he is persuaded without 
clear knowledge ; and the absent man receives a 
double wrong, in being slandered by one man, 
and in being thought evil of by another. But if 
an army must go against these men, come — 
let the king remain in the land of the Persians, 
and let us both put our children to the venture. 
Then go thou with thy chosen men, and take as 



70 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

:. great an army as it maj^ please thee to have. 
And if the issue be what thou hast said, then let 
my children be slain, and let me die also ; but if 
it turn out as I have said, then let thy children 
be killed, and thyself also if thou return. And 
if thou likest not this but still in any case wilt 
lead an army against Hellas, then some of those 
who remain behind will hear some day that Mar- 
donios, after great mischief done to the Persians, 
and torn to pieces by dogs and birds in the land 
of the Athenians or Lacedaemonians, if not before 
by the way, found out against what sort of men 
he besought the king to march.' 

11 Then was Xerxes very wroth, and said: ^0 
Artabanos, thou art my father's brother. This 
shall save thee from the meet reward of thy vain 
words. And yet this shame do I put upon thee 
for thy meanness and faintness of heart, that 
thou shalt not go with me against Hellas, but 
remain at home with the women. I can do all 
that I have said without thee ; for may I not be 
sprung from Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the 
son of Arsames, the son of Ariaramnes, the son of 
Teispes, the son of Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, 
the son of Teispes, the son of Achaimenes, if I 
take not vengeance upon the Athenians. Sure 
I am that if we be still, yet will not they, but 
will the rather come against our land, if we may 
judge from what they have already done. They 



THE YISION OF XERXES. 71 

have burnt Sardes and marched into Asia. It vi 
is not possible, therefore, that either should draw 
back ; but there is a struggle before both, to do 
and to suffer, — that all our lands may be under 
the Grreeks, or all their country under the Per- 
sians ; for there is no middle path in our enmity. 
It is good, therefore, that we, who have suffered 
beforehand, should punish them, and that so I 
may learn what that evil is which I shall suffer 
when I march against these men, whom even 
Pelops the Phrygian, the slave of my father, so 
subdued, that their land and all that dwell in it 
are called still by his name.' 

So the council was ended ; and the night came 12 
on, and the words of Artabanos troubled Xerxes. 
And as he listened to the voice of the night,^ he 
learnt that he ought in no wise to march against 
Hellas ; and when he had thus fixed his mind, he 
fell asleep. Then in his sleep he saw a vision, as 
the Persians say ; and he thought that there stood 
over him a man fair and tall, who said, ^ Dost 
thou repent, Persian, from leading an army 
against Hellas, when thou hast charged thy 

* I should not wish this expression to be taken as a trans- 
lation of the somewhat unusual phrase vvktI ^ovK^u Bl^ovs — 
although a meaning not unlike it has been assigned to the phrase 
by some interpreters. (See the note of Bahr on the passage.) 
Here, however, as elsewhere, it is not my object to furnish an 
exact translation, or to be fettered by the conditions which must 
of necessity be imposed upon all translations. 



72 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

■• people to gather their hosts together? Thou 
doest'not well in thy change of counsel, neither is 
there any who will forgive thee. Gro thou on the 
road in the which thou didst purpose to walk on 
the day that is past.' And when he had said this, 
3 3 he vanished away. But when the day dawned, 
. Xerxes took no heed of the dream ; but he called 
the Persians together again, and said, ' Forgive 
me, Persians, that my counsel is changed. 
When I heard 'the judgment of Artabanos, my 
spirit grew hot within me, as in youth it is wont 
to do ; and I spake unseemly words towards an 
aged man. Now, therefore, I shall follow his 
mind; and be ye all still, for I purpose no longer 
to go against Hellas.' When the Persians heard 

14 this, they rejoiced and did obeisance. But when 
it was night, again the same vision stood over 
Xerxes as he slept, and said, ^So now, son of 
Darius, thou hast changed thy purpose in the 
sight of the Persians, and hast put aside my words 
as though they had never been spoken. But be 
thou sure that if thou set not out forthwith, as 
thou hast become great and mighty in a little 
while, so in a little while shalt thou be made low.' 

15 And Xerxes rose in fear and sprang from his 
couch, and sent a messenger to call Artabanos ; 
and when he was come, he said, ^ Artabanos, I 
spoke rash and vain words to thee at the first in 
return for thy good counsel ; but in a little while 



I 



XEIIXES EECOUNTS HIS DEEAM TO ARTABANOS. 73 

I knew that I ought to do that which thou didst v 
desire. And yet I cannot do so, although I wish 
it ; for a vision comes to me in my sleep, and 
will not suffer me thus to act. Even now has it 
threatened me and departed. Now if it be a god 
who sends it, and if it must be that an army go 
against Hellas, then the same vision will come to 
thee and give thee the like charge. Therefore 
put thou on all my dress, and sit first upon my 
throne, and afterwards sleep upon my couch.' 
But Artabanos would not at the first, because he 16 
did not think himself worthy to sit on the king's 
throne, but at length he said, ^To be wise, 
king, and to obey the man who gives good coun- 
sel, seems to me the same thing. Thou hast both 
these virtues, but thou hast been deceived by the 
conversation of wicked men, — as the sea, they 
say, which is most useful to men, is not suffered 
to show its own nature by the winds that fall 
upon it. Nor did it so much grieve me to be 
evil spoken of by thee, as that thou shouldest 
choose the worse opinion when two were laid 
before the Persians, seeing that the one puffed up 
pride and the other taught that man should not 
be ever greedy after more than has been given to 
him. But now that thou art turned to the safer 
judgment, and hast renounced the journey to 
Hellas, thou sayest that there comes to thee a 
vision from heaven, which suffers thee not to 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN TV^R. 



<i 



change thy purpose. Yet can this scarcely be, 
my son. The dreams which in their wanderings; 
come to men, are such as I shall show thee who 
am many years thine elder. In sleep there come 
to us for the most part the visions of those things 
on which we have thought most during the day ; 
and we for many days have been much intent upon 
this expedition. But if it be not as I suppose, 
but rather something divine, then thy words are 
rightly spoken. So let it appear to me, and give 
me the same charge. Yet if it must come, it 
ought to come to me no more if I put on thy 
dress than if I wear my own, and if I rest on thy 
couch than if I sleep on my own. For that which 
comes to thee in thy sleep, whatever it be, is surely 
not so silly as to think, on seeing me, that it looks 
upon thee, judging by thy vesture. If then, refus- 
ing to appear to me, it shall return to thee many 
times, I should say that it was sent from heaven. 
But if thy purpose is fixed that I must sleep on 
thy couch, so let it come even to me. In the 
meanwhile I shall remain in my present mind.' 
17 So spake Artabanos, for he hoped to show that 
the vision was nought ; and he put on the king's 
robe and sat down on his throne, and thence 
went unto his couch. And the Dream of Xerxes 
came and stood over him, saying, ^Art thou he 
that movest Xerxes from going against Hellas, as 
though thou carest for him ? But neither now 



THE VISION COMES TO AKTABANOS. /5 

nor hereafter shalt thou go unscathed, if thou vn. 
seekest to turn aside that which must be; and 
what Xerxes must suffer if he obey not, has been 
already shown to him.' Then the Dream ap- is 
peared as though it were about to sear out his 
eyes with hot irons ; and Artabanos cried aloud 
and leapt up, and told Xerxes of the vision, say- 
ing moreover, ' king, as a man who has seen 
many great and mighty things yield to that which 
is mean, I w^as not willing that thou shouldest in 
all things follow the temper of thine age, for I 
knew that greediness is an evil thing, and I 
remembered how Cyrus fared when he went 
against the Massagetai, and the march of Cam- 
by ses against the Ethiopians, and how I followed 
Darius against the Scythians; and I thought 
that, if thou couldst but remain at rest, thy lot 
would be held blessed by all mankind. But thou 
art urged on by a dream from heaven, and de- 
struction is prepared for the Grreeks Therefore is 
my own mind changed within me. Show then to 
the Persians what hath come to thee from heaven, 
and charge them to do as thou didst bid them at 
the first. See also that on thy part there may be 
nothing wanting,' So in the morning the king 
told all this with gladness to the Persians, and 
Artabanos now urged on the things which he had 
spoken against before. 

And yet another vision came to Xerxes, from 19 



76 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VII. which the Magians judged that all the earth should 
be subdued before the king. Xerxes dreamed that 
he was crowned with an olive wreath, and from 
the olive sprang forth branches overshadowing 
all the earth ; and presently the wreath that was 
around his head withered away. Then every man 
of the princes of the Persians went unto his own 
land, and made haste to gather all his men to- 
gether, if so he might win the prize which the 

20 king had promised. And so was the armament 
brought together in such sort that all that went 
before it was as nothing in comparison, — even the 
armies that had marched against the Scythians, 
or the hosts which the sons of Atreus led against 

21 Troy. For what of all the nations of Asia did not 
the king lead against Hellas? and what streams 
failed not, as his army drank of them, save only 
the great rivers ? 

Now, because the ships that went with Mar- 
donios the son of Grobryas had suffered much hurt 
when they tried to sail round Mount Athos, they 
worked in that part for three years beforehand, 
and dug a great canal across the isthmus which 
joins Mount Athos to the mainland ; and the people 
24 w^orked under the lash. This canal the king com- 
manded to be made, to show his greatness and to 
leave a memorial behind him ; for when without 
trouble they might have drawn the ships over the 
isthmus, he charged them to dig a canal so wide 



THE RICHES OF PYTHIOS. 77 

that they might row two triremes abreast through vn. 
it. And they who dug the canal were commanded 
also to make a bridge over the river Strymon. 

So all things were made ready, and stores of 25 
food were laid up at all places where it was need- 
ful to place it, and chiefly at the White Shore of 
the Thracian land, at Tyrodiza, at Doriskos, and 
at Eion, which is on the river Strymon. And in 26 
the meanwhile all the foot soldiers marched with 
the king to Sardes, having set out from Kritalla in 
Kappadokia ; for there it had been ordered that all 
the army should come to meet the king. But 
which of the princes furnished the best armament, 
I cannot tell, nor do I know whether they came to 
any trial in the matter. 

Then they crossed the river Halys and came to 
Kelainai, where are the sources of the Maiandros 
[Mseander] and the Katarraktes. And in this city 27 
a Lydian named Pythios, the son of Atys, received 
the king and all his army with much feasting, and 
desired to furnish money for the war. Then Xerxes 
asked who this man was that he should do thus, and 
they said, ' This is he, king, who gave to thy 
father Darius the golden plane-tree and the vine, 
and who after thee is the richest of all men.' At 28 
this Xerxes marvelled, and' asked Pythios what his 
wealth might be ; and Pythios said, ' I will tell 
thee the truth, king. When I heard that thy 
army was coming, I wished to give money for 



/8 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

^n. the war, and I counted up my riches, and found 
that I had two thousand talents of silver and four 
hundred myriads of golden staters lacking seven 
thousand. All this I give to thee, for I can live 

29 by my slaves and by my land.' Then was Xerxes 
greatly pleased, and said that he had found none 
so well-minded to himself before. Wherefore he 
made Pythios his friend, and would take no money 
from him, but gave him seven thousand pieces of 
gold that he might have the full tale of four hun- 
dred myriads. 

30 So the king went on his way, and passing by 
the city of Anaua he came to Kolossai, a great city 
of Phrygia ; and when they were near Kallatebos, 
Xerxes saw a plane-tree which seemed to him so 
fair that he gave to it a golden wreath and left a 
man to take care of it, and then he went on to 

32 Sardes. And from Sardes he sent heralds into 
Hellas to ask for earth and water and to bid them 
make ready to receive the king. Only to Athens 
and Lacedsemon he sent not. But to the others 
he sent, because he thought that all would give it 
now who had not given it to Darius his father. 

*^3 Now his servants had made a bridge across 
the Hellespont, between Sestos and Madytos, near 

34 Abydos ; but a great storm came and broke it to 

35 pieces and scattered it. Then was Xerxes very 
wroth, and commanded to scourge the Hellespont 
with three hundred lashes and to cast a pair of 



THE SCOURGINa OF THE HELLESPONT. 79 

fetters into the sea. He sent brauders also, as yi 
some say, to brand the Hellespont; and he charged 
them to rebuke the water and cry unto it, ' 
bitter water, thus doth the king punish thee, be- 
cause without wrong from him thou hast done him 
harm. But Xerxes the king will pass over thee, 
whether thou wilt or whether thou wilt not ; and 
surely thou deservest no sacrifice, for thou art a 
false and briny river.' Thus he charged them to 
smite the sea, and to cut off the heads of the men 
who had been over the work. So they who re- 36 
ceived this charge performed their thankless task, 
while others made a new bridge with much labour 
and toil, and placed earth all over it, and raised a 
hedo'e on either side, that the horses and cattle 
might not be frightened by seeing the sea as they 
passed over it. 

So when all -things were ready and the spring 37 
was now come, the army left Sardes to go to 
Abydos ; and as they were going, the sun left its 
place in the heaven, and, although there were 
no clouds, it became night instead of day. And 
as Xerxes saw this, he was troubled and asked 
the Magians what this sign might mean; and 
they said that it foretold to the Grreeks the fall 
of their cities, because the sun gave warnings to 
the Greeks, but the moon to the Persians. 

Then Xerxes went on his way exulting ; but 38 
Pythios the Lydian was frightened by the sign of 



80 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

the sun, and be said to the king, ' king, grant me 
that which I shall ask, for it is but a little thins: 
for thee to give.' And Xerxes bade him say on; 
and he answered, ' king, I have five sons, and 
they are all in thy army. But I am an old man ; 
wherefore pity me, and leave the eldest of my 
children that he may take care of me and of my 

39 riches.' Then was Xerxes angry, and said, ' 
wretched man, I am going against Hellas, taking 
with me my children and servants and friends ; 
and dost thou who art my slave, and oughtest to 
follow me with all thy house, dare to speak of 
thy son ? Yet will I do to thee less than what 
thou dost deserve.' Then he commanded that 
they should take the oldest of the sons of Pythios 
and cut his body in two pieces, and place half on 
either side of the road ; and so the army marched 
between them, a very great multitude, with ser- 

40 vants and cattle. When half had passed there 
was a space left; and behind it there came a 
thousand chosen horsemen of the Persians, and a 
thousand chosen spear-bearers with their lances 
turned towards the ground, and then ten sacred 
Msaian horses with beautiful trappings. Behind 
these came the sacred chariot of Zeus, drawn by 
eight white horses, and their driver walked behind 
them holding the reins, for no man may go up 
upon this chariot. Then came the king himself 

41 on a chariot drawn by Nisaian horses, and there 



XERXES SURYEYS HIS HOST AT ABYDOS. 81 

followed him a thousand of the noblest of the vn. 
Persians bearing spears, and a numberless host 
came after them of spearmen and archers and 
horsemen ; and all that followed the army were 
mingled in the rear. 

So they went on, and tarried for a night under 42 
Mount Ida, where a storm of thunder and light- 
ning slew a great multitude. And when they 43 
reached the Skamandros, of which the stream failed 
as the army drank of it, Xerxes desired to see the 
Pergamos of Priam ; and he went up and offered 
to Athene a thousand cows, and the Magians 
poured libations to the heroes ; and because they 
did this at night, the army who saw it afar off 
were sore afraid. . 

But when they reached Abydos, Xerxes desired 44 
to see all his army : and he sat upon a seat of 
white stone which had been made ready for him ; 
and he beheld the army on the shore, and the 
ships, and as he looked he desired to see a 
battle among the ships. So it was done, and 
the Phoenicians of Sidon conquered. Then was 
the king pleased with the fight and with the army, 
and as he saw the Hellespont hidden by the ships 45 
and all the shore and the plains of Abydos full 
of men, Xerxes called himself a happy man, and 
after that he wept. But when his uncle Artabanos, 46 
who had besought him at the first not to go 
against Hellas, saw this, he marvelled and said, 

a 



82 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

^ king, thou doest strange things ; even now 
thou didst call thyself happy, and then thou 
weepest.' And the king answered, ^ Thought 
came upon me and sorrow for the shortness of the 
life of man, because, after a hundred years, of all 
this great host not one shall remain alive,' But 
Artabanos said, ' There are other things more 
woful than this, for there is no man so happy 
but what he will often wish to die rather than to 
live. The sorrows that come upon us, and the 
diseases that trouble us, make our life which is 
short appear long, and therefore from so much 
wretchedness death becomes the best refuge ; and 
heaven, if it gives us a taste of happiness, yet is 

47 found to be but a jealous giver.' And Xerxes 
said to Artabanos, ' Let us speak no more of 
mortal life, which is even as thou sayest ; nor let 
us bring evil things to mind, when we have a 
good work in our hands. But tell me this : if 
thou hadst not seen the vision clearly, wouldst 
thou have kept thine old counsel, or wouldst 
thou have changed ? Tell me the truth.' Then 
said Artabanos, ^ May the dream be accomplished 
as we both desire, yet am I still full of care and 
anxious, because I see that two very mighty 

4S things are most hostile to thee.' And the king 
asked, ^ What may these things be ? Will the 
army of the Grreeks be more in number than 
mine, or will our ships be fewer than theirs? for 



THE FEAES OF AKTABANOS. 83 

if it be SO5 we will quickly bring yet another host vn. 
together; And he answered, ' king, no one 49 
who has sense could find fault either with thy 
army or with thy ships ; and if more be gathered 
together, the two things become yet more hostile, 
and these are the land and the sea. The sea has 
no harbour which, if a storm come, can shelter so 
many ships. And yet there is need not merely of 
one haven, but of many along the whole coast 
where we must sail. Chance rules men, and men 
cannot control chance. The land too is hostile, 
and if nothing resists thee it becomes yet more 
hurtful the further that we may go ; for men are 
never satisfied with good fortune, and so the 
length of the journey must at last bring about 
a famine. Now that man is bravest who is timid 
in counsel and bold in action.' And Xerxes an- 50 
swered, ' Thou speakest well, Artabanos. Yet of 
what use is it to count up all these things ? for if 
we were always to be weighing every chance, we 
Aould never do anything at all. It is better to 
be bold and suffer half the evil, than, by fearing 
all things, to escape all suffering. And how can a 
man find certainty in counsel ? Surely advantage 
follows action; and good fortune comes not to 
those who will make no venture. See how great 
is the power of the Persians. If the kings who * 
have gone before me had followed counsellors 
like thee, it would never have been as it is now. 

g2 



84 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

But they faced the danger and gained this 
dominion, for great things must be compassed by 
great risks. We then, like them, go forth at the 
fairest season of the year, and when we have 
subdued all Europe we will return home, having 
been vexed neither by famine nor by any other 
evil. We carry great store of food with us, and 
we will take the corn of the lands through which 
we shall pass ; for we march not against wandering 
tribes, but against men who live by tillage.' 

51 Then said Artabanos, ^Though thou fearest 
nothing, king, yet receive my counsel; for 
weighty matters need many words. Cyrus, the 
son of Cambyses, brought all Ionia, save only 
Athens, to pay tribute to the Persians. Send not 
then these men in any way against their fathers, 
for even without them we shall be able to conquer. 
If they go, they must either be most unjust in 
enslaving the land from which they spring, or 
most just by setting it free. If they are unjust, 
our gain is but little ; but if they are just, they can 
do us great harm. Think then on the old saying, 
that the end of a work is not always clear at the 

52 beginning.' But the king answered, ^ Arta- 
banos, in this thou art most of all deceived ; for 
thou and all who went with Darius against the 

' Scythians know that it lay with these lonians to 
save or destroy the whole ► army of the Persians. 
But they were faithful and did us no harm ; and 



THE PEATEE OF XEEXES. 85 

besides this, their wives, their children, and their vii. 
substance are all with us. Wherefore be of good 
courage, and guard for me my house and my 
empire, for to thee alone do I commit my sceptre.' ^3 
So Xerxes sent Artabanos away to Sousa, and called 
together the chief of the Persians, and said to 
them, ' Be strong. Persians, and of great cou- 
rage, and shame not the deeds of your fathers. 
We are marching against brave men, and if we 
conquer these, there are none on the face of the 
earth who will be able to stand against us. Now 
then let us cross over, when we have prayed to the 
gods who guard the Persian land.' 

So that day they made ready to cross ; and on 54 
the day after, they waited till the sun was risen, 
and offered up all kinds of perfumes on the bridge 
and strewed myrtle branches along the road. 
And when the sun rose, Xerxes poured wine from 
a golden cup into the sea, and prayed to the Sun 
that no harm might happen unto him which 
might prevent him from conquering all Europe. 
Then he threw the cup into the Hellespont with a 
golden goblet and a Persian dagger. But whether 
he offered these to the sun, or whether he gave 
them to the sea, because it repented him that he 
had scourged it, I cannot tell. 

So they crossed over, first a thousand Persians 5j 
with crowns upon their heads, and then the mingled 
throng of all the nations. These went on the first 



86 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

day, and on the second day the horsemen and 
the spear-bearers with their lances turned towards 
the ground ; and these also had crowns upon their 
heads. And after them came the sacred horses 
and chariot, and the king himself with his spear- 

56 men and the thousand horsemen ; and the rest of 
the army followed. So Xerxes saw his host cross 
under the lash of those who drove them, and they 
were seven days and seven nights in passing over ; 
and when they had crossed, a man of the Helles- 
pont said, ^ Zeus, why wilt thou, in the likeness 
of a Persian and calling thyself by the name of 
Xerxes, uproot all Hellas, leading against it all the 
race of man ? for even without these thou mightest 
do this.' 

59 And while the army passed, the ships also 
crossed over, and they all met at Doriskos in 
Thrace ; and there the army was numbered, and 
all the host was one hundred and seventy myriads 
of men. All the nations of the earth were there, 
and every fashion of raiment was to be seen, and 
all kinds of weapons, — Persians and Modes and 
Kissians, Baktrians, Sakai, and Hyrkanians, and 
the peoples of Assyria, of India and Arabia, the 
Parthians and Chorasmians, and many others. 
And some went on foot, and some on horses, and 
each fought after the fashion of his own people. 
And there were twelve hundred ships of the 
Phoenicians and Egyptians, and from the Lykians 



XERXES TALKS WITH lEMARATOS. 87 

and Kilikians, from the Dorians and lonians, vn. 
and from the islands. And in all the ships 96 
there were soldiers of the Persians and Sakai and 
Medes. 

When the hosts were numbered, the king went lOO 
through them upon a chariot, nation by nation, 
and asked their names, and his scribes wrote them 
down, until he came to the end. After this he 
went into a ship of Sidon, and sailed in front of 
all the ships, and their names and numbers he 
caused to be written down also. 

Then the king sent for Demaratos, the son of loi 
Ariston, who went with him against Hellas, and 
said to him, ' Demaratos, thou art a Grreek, and, 
as I hear, of no mean city. Now therefore tell me, 
will the Greeks lift up their hands against me ? 
for it seems to me that if they were gathered to- 
gether with all the dwellers of the West, they 
would not be able to fight with me, because they 
agree not one with the other. Still I would hear 
what thou hast to say about them.' Then said 
Demaratos, ^0 king, shall I speak the truth, or only 
that which is pleasant ? ' And the king charged him 
to say truly, for that he should be not less dear than 
he was before. Then Demaratos answered, ' Know 102 
then, king (since thou wishest me to speak that 
which is no lie), that poverty always dwells with 
the Grreeks ; but courage they have won from wis- 
dom and the strength of law, by which they keep 



88 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

:i- off both poverty and tyranny. But, though all 
the Greeks are worthy of praise, yet now T 
speak of the Lacedaemonians only. Be sure that 
these will never receive thy words which bring 
slavery to Hellas, and that they will come out 
against thee to battle, even though all the rest 
should take thy side ; neither ask thou what their 
numbers are that they should dare to do this, for 
if a thousand set out, these will fight with thee, be 

103 they more or be they less.' And Xerxes laughed 
and said, ^ Demaratos, sayest thou that a thous- 
and men will fight with my great army ? Tell me 
now— thou wast once their king — wilt thou fight 
straightway with ten men ? Yet if each of them 
will match ten men of mine, thou, their king, 
shouldst match twenty. And so might thy words 
be true. But if in size they are like all other 
Greeks whom I have seen, see that thy speech be 
not vain boasting. Come and let us reason upqn 
it. How could a thousand or a myriad or five 
myriads, who are all free and not ruled by one man, 
withstand so great a host ? Nay, we are even more 
than a thousand to one, even if they be five thousand. 
If, according to our custom, they were ruled by one, 
then, through fear of this one, they would become 
brave beyond their own nature, and being driven by 
the scourge would go against a larger host than their 
own. But now, left to their own freedom, they 
will do none of these things. Still, I think that. 



DEMxVRATOS FOREWARNS XERXES. 89 

even if their numbers were equal, they could not vn 
withstand the Persians alone. But I too have 
what thou speakest of, though it be but rare ; for 
among my spear-bearers are men who will fight 
with three Grreeks at once. Wherefore in thine 
ignorance thou speakest foolishly.' But Dema- 104 
rates said, ^ I knew at the first, king, that the 
truth would not please thee. But since thou hast 
compelled me, I have spoken of the Spartans as I 
ought to speak. What love I bear to them, thou 
kno west well. They have robbed me of my power 
and of my honours, and driven me to a strange 
land ; and thy father received me and gave me a 
house and food. Is it likely then that I should 
put aside the kindness which he showed to me ? 
I say not indeed that I am able to fight with 
ten men or with two, nor willingly would I fight 
with one ; but if I must fight, and if the stake 
were great, then would I choose to fight with one 
of those whom thou thinkest equal to three Grreeks. 
So, too, the Lacedaemonians one by one are as 
strong as other men, but, taken together, they are 
strongest of all, for, though they are free, yet are 
they not without a lord. Law is their master, 
whom they fear much more than thy people fear 
thee. So they do whatsoever it commands : and 
it commands always the same thing, charging them 
never to fly from any enemy, how strong soever he 
be, but remain in their ranks and conquer or die. 



90 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I If now I seem to speak foolishly, let me keep 

silence for the time to come, for I have spoken 

only at thy bidding. Yet may all things go as 

05 thou desirest.' Then Xerxes laughed again and 

was not at all angry, but sent him away kindly. 

108 So the army went onwards, and all those whom 
they met they compelled to go with them ; and 

113 when they came to the river Strymon, the Ma- 

114 gians offered to it white horses in sacrifice; and 
at the place called the Nine Roads, they buried 
alive nine youths and maidens, children of the 
people of the land. This they did after the fash- 
ion of the Persians, even as Amestris, the wife of 
Xerxes, when she grew old, buried alive fourteen 
youths, sons of chief men among the Persians, 
to do honour to the god who dwells beneath the 
earth. 

118 Now wherever the king and the army came, 
they ate up all the wealth of the land, and left 
nothing behind them. And when they were come 
into Mygdonia, lions fell upon the camels who 
carried the corn. These came down by night, and 
touched neither man nor beast, but the camels 

131 only. And the king abode many days in Pieria, 
until the heralds who had been §ent into Hellas 
came back — some empty, and some bearing earth 
and water. 

132 Now many of the Grreeks had given earth to 
the king, and among them were the people of 



THE GLORY OF THE ATHENIANS. 91 

Thessaly and Phthiotis^ the Lokrians and Mag- v] 
nesians, and all the Boeotians, except only the 
men of Thespiai and Plataiai ; and against these 
the other Greeks swore with an oath that they 
would be avenged on them when the war should 
be over. But to Athens and Sparta the king 133 
sent no heralds, because, when heralds came to 
them from Darius his father, they threw some of 
them into a dungeon and others into a ditch, 
and bade them thence to bear earth and water to 
the king. 

So they who gave earth were of good courage; 138 
and they who gave not, feared greatly, because 
of the treachery of the others, and because they 
had not ships enough to go out against the fleet 
of the Persians. 

And so it was that, if the Athenians had feared 139 
the coming danger and left their country, or, 
even without leaving it, had yielded themselves 
up to Xerxes, none else would have dared to 
withstand the king by sea. And on the land 
this would have been the issue: even if many 
walls had been raised across the Isthmus, the La- 
cedaemonians would have been forsaken by their 
allies, as they yielded one by one to the Persians 
in their ships. And so, after doing brave deeds, 
they might have died nobly ; or else, seeing all 
the others yielding to the Mede, would have done 
likewise : and so in both ways Hellas would have 



92 TALE OF THE GREAT PEESIAN WAE. 

come under the rule of the Persians, for I cannot 
see how the Isthmian walls would have helped 
them, when the king had the power by sea. But 
now may we rightly call the Athenians the sa- 
viours of Hellas, for with them was the scale of 
things to turn. And they chose that Hellas 
should continue free, and raised up and cheered 
all those who yielded not to the barbarian 
Thus, next after the Grods, they drove away the 
king, because they feared not the oracles from 
Delphi, neither were they scared by the great 
perils which were coming upon their country. 



93 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE OKACLES OE DELPHI, Al^D THE COFl^SELS OE THEMIS- 
TOKLES. — THE EMBASSIES TO ARGOS AND TO SYRACUSE. 
— LEONIDAS AT THERMOPYLAI. 



TS)U iv @€piJ.oirv\aLs BavSvroov 

€VK\er]s fjiev a rvxO', 

KaXhs 5' 6 TTorfxos, 

ficofjihs 5' 6 rci(pos, 

irph yScou 5e ^vaffris, 

b S' OLTOS iiraivos" 

eyrd^iov Be tolovtov 

ovr evpchs, ovd^ 6 •navBafxaToop 

afiavpaxreL xpo^os, avBpwv ayaBCjv. 

SiMONIDES. 

Now the Athenians had sent messengers to con- Herodotus, 
suit the god at Delphi; and when they were 
come thither and had offered sacrifice, the 
priestess Aristonike made answer to them, and 
said: 

^ wretched people, why sit ye still ? Leave 
your homes and strongholds of your city, and 
flee away. 

^ For head and body, feet and hands, nothing 
is sound, but all is wretched. 



94 TALE OF THE MEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

II. ^ For fire and war, wliicli are hastening hither 
in a Syrian chariot, will presently make it low. 

^And other strong places also shall they de- 
stroy, and not yours only. 

' And many temples of the undying gods shall 
they give to the flame. 

' Down their walls the big drops are streaming, 
as they tremble for fear. 

^ And from their roofs the black blood is poured 
down, for the sorrow that is coming. 

^But go ye from my holy place, and brace up 
j^our hearts for the evil.'^ 
141 When the messengers heard these words, they 
were greatly afraid. But Timon, the son of 
Androboulos, a great man among the Delphians, 
when he saw them thus utterly cast down, bade 
them take olive-branches and go again to the 
god. So they went, and said, ' king, look 
upon us who come now as suppliants, and tell 
us something better about our country, for, if not, 
we will stay here till we die.' 

Then the priestess spake and answered them : 
' Pallas cannot prevail with Zeus who dwells on 
Olympus, though she has besought him with many 
prayers. H| 

* KaKois iiriKi^vare Ovfiov. The passage is ambiguous, and 
its meaning has been disputed. See Grote's History of G-reece, 
Tol. V. p. 82 ; Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 294 ; and 
Eawlinson's Herodotus, vol. iv. p. 119. 



THE COUNSEL OF THEMISTOKLES. 95 

' And his word, which I now tell you, is firmly vi 
fixed as a rock. 

^ For thus saith Zeus, that, when all else within 
the land of Kekrops is wasted, the wooden wall 
aloDe shall not be taken ; and this shall help you 
and your children. 

^ But wait not until the horsemen come and the 
footmen. Turn your backs upon them now, and 
one day ye shall meet them. 

^ And thou, divine Salamis, shalt destroy those 
that are born of women, when the seed time comes 
or the harvest.' 

These words, as being more hopeful, the mes- 142 
sengers wrote down, and went back to Athens 
and read them before the people. And the as- 
sembly was divided ; for some of the old men 
thought that the god spake of the Akropolis, that 
it should not be taken, becauselong ago there had 
been a thorn hedge round it ; while others said 
that he meant them to leave their city and betake 
themselves to the ships. But they who said this 
were troubled by the last words of the priestess, 
for all the soothsayers took them to mean that 
they should be beaten in a sea-fight at Salamis. 

But among the Athenians there was a man 143 
named Themistokles, the son of Neokles, to whom 
the people gave, every day, more heed. This man 
came forward and said, ^ Athenians, the sooth- 
sayers are wrong. If these words had been spoken 



96 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IT. of US, I am sure that the priestess would have said 
Salamis the wretched, and not Salamis the divine, 
if the people of the land were doomed to die 
there. The words are spoken not of us but of 
our enemies. Arm then for the fight at sea, for 
this is the wooden walL' And the Athenians be- 
lieved Themistokles rather than the soothsayers, 
because they would not have them fight by sea or 
even lift a hand against the enemy, but besought 
them to flee away and dwell in some other land. 

li-i And at this time another judgment of Themis- 
tokles stood them in good stead : for many years 
before, when the treasury of the people was rich 
and they were going to share among the citizens 
the money from the silver-mine of Laureion, he 
prevailed with them not to give away the money, 
but to build ships with it for the war against Aigina. 
And so it was that this war saved Hellas, for it 
made the Athenians become seamen ; and the ships 
then built were never used against the men of 
Aigina, but were now of benefit to all the Greeks. 
And now they resolved to build many more ships 

145 to fight with the barbarians by sea. And with 
them all the Greeks who took the good side made 
a vow that they would put away all feuds one 
against the other and cease from w^ar; for there 
had been several wars going od amongst them, 
but the greatest was that between the men of 
Athens and Aigina. They determined also to send 



XERXES SENDS AWAY THE SPIES UNHURT. 9t 

spies to Asia^ to see how Xerxes fared, and to send vii. 
messengers to Argos and Sicily, to Kerkyra and 
Crete, that all might come to the aid of their 
kinsmen against the Persian. 

So the spies went to Sardes; but they were H6 
caught and were led away to be put to death. 
When Xerxes heard it, he charged his spear- 
bearers to bring them before him, if they were 
yet alive ; and when he saw them and knew the 
reason of their coming, he ordered that they should 
be led through his whole army, and sent away un- 
hurt after they were tired with seeing everything. 
And the king said that, if the spies had been killed, 1^7 
the Greeks could not have heard beforehand of 
all his great might, and yet they would do them 
but little hurt by slaying three men ; but now he 
thought to have no trouble by marching against 
them when the spies told them of his mighty army. 
At another time, when he was at Abydos, he saw 
ships with corn from Pontes sailing through the 
Hellespont ; and they who sat by were ready to 
seize them, and waited only for the king's com- 
mand. But Xerxes asked whither they were sail- 
ing, and they answered, ^To thy enemies, king, 
laden with corn.' Then he said, ^ Why, we are 
going thither also. What harm do they do by 
taking corn for me ? ' 

After this, the messengers came to Argos, but 14S 
they spoke to the Argives in vain. Many tales 



98 TALE OF THE GEE AT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. were told about it, but their own story is this, 
that, when they first heard that the Persians were 
coming, they sent to Delphi to ask the god what 
it would be best for them to do, because they had 
lost many men in their war with the Lacedaemo- 
nians, and that the priestess said to them : 

' thou that art hated by thy neighbours, but 
dear to the undying gods, 

' Keep thy spear beside thee, and sit still. 

^Gruard thy head, and the head shall save the 
body.' 

So, on the coming of the messengers, they said 
that, although the god forbade it, they would go 
out with the Spartans, if the Spartans would make 
peace with them for thirty years and give them 

149 half the power. But the Spartans said that they 
had two kings, while the Argives had only one, and 
that they could not give him more than one vote 
out of three. Then the Argives were filled with 
anger, and bade the messengers leave Argos before 
the setting of the sun, if they would not be treated 
as enemies. 

150 Such was their own tale ; but another was told 
throughout Hellas, that Xerxes himself sent a 
herald to Argos who said, ^ Men of Argos, thus 
saith the king. We believe that Perses, from whom 
we are sprung, was the son of Perseus the son of 
Danae,andof Andromeda the daughter of Kepheus. 
So then we are descended from you ; and it is not 



THE AMBASSADORS COME TO GELON. 99 

right that we should go against those from whom vn 
we spring, or that you should oppose us by aiding 
others. Sit still then, and if things go as I 
would have them, there are none whom I will 
honour more than you.' And so, when the mes- 
sengers of the Grreeks came, they asked the Spar- 
tans for an equal share of power, because they 
knew that they would not give it. Now, whether 152 
Xerxes really did so send a herald, I cannot say 
with certainty ; but this I know, that if all men 
were to bring together their charges against others, 
in order to make an exchange, they would gladly 
go back each with his own burden, after stooping 
to pick up that of his neighbour ; and so it can 
hardly be said that the Argives behaved worse 
than all others. Still I can only say what has 
been said by others ; and the tale is also told that 
the men of Argos in very truth called the Persians 
against Hellas, because they were vexed at being 
beaten in war by the Lacedaemonians. 

Then also the messengers who had been sent to ie37 
Sicily came to Grelon the tyrant of Syracuse, and 
said to him, ' The Lacedaemonians and Athenians 
have sent us to ask thy help against the barbarian ; 
for thou surely knowest that the Persian is bring- 
ing all the army of the East from Asia against 
Hellas, pretending that he comes against Athens 
only, but wishing really to make all the Grreeks 
his slaves. Thy power is great, and no little 

H 2 



T[ 



100 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

r. portion of Hellas is thine^ because thou rulest 
over Sicily. Help us then to deliver our country. 
If we stand together, our arms are strong, and we 
can match the enemy in battle. But if some 
betray and others will not help us, then it is to be 
feared that all Hellas must fall ; for it is vain to 
think that the Persian will not come against you 
if we are conquered. Take heed then in time. 
By aiding us thou savest thyself; and a good 

158 issue commonly follows wise counsel.' But Gre 
Ion was angry, and answered vehemently, ' What 
grasping and selfish speech is this, ye Grreeks, 
that ye ask my help against the barbarian ? 
When I sought your aid against the men of Car 
thage, and promised to open to you markets 
from which you have reaped rich gains, ye wouL 
not come ; and, as far as lies with you, all th 
country had been under the barbarians to th: 
day. But I have prospered ; and now that wa: 
threatens you, ye begin to remember Grelon. But 
I will not deal with you as ye have dealt witliji 
me. I will give you two hundred triremes and 
twenty thousand hoplites, with horsemen and 
archers, slingers and runners; and I will give 
corn for all the arm}^' of the Greeks as long as 
the war shall last. But I must be the chieftaiJ| 
and leader of the Grreeks against the barbarians. 
Not otherwise will I go myself or suffer others to 
20.' 



ts 

I 



THEY KEFUSE THE DEMANDS OF GELON. 101 

Then Syagros the Spartan could not refrain th. I59 
himself, but said, ' In very deed would Agamem- 
non the son of Pelops mourn, if he were to hear 
that the Spartans had been robbed of their honour 
by Grelon and the Syracusans. Dream not that we 
shall ever yield it to you. If thou choosest to aid 
Hellas, do so under the Lacedaemonians ; and if 
thou wilt not have it so, then stay at home.' Then 
said Gelon, ' Spartan friend, abuse commonly 
makes a man angry ; but I will not pay thee 
back thy insults in kind. If ye cling to power, 
is it not likely that I should do so too, w^ho lead 
many more ships and men than you have ? But 
as ye are obstinate, I will thus far yield. If ye 
rule by sea, I will rule by land; if ye rule by 
land, then must I rule on the sea.' But hereon i6i 
the messenger of the Athenians stood forth and 
said, ' King of the Syracusaus, the Greeks have 
sent us not because they want a leader, but 
because they want an army. Now of an army 
thou sayest little, but much about the command : 
and when thou didst ask to lead us all, we left 
it to the Lacedaemonians to speak ; but now that 
thou askest to rule by sea, then know that, not 
even if they should wish it, will we yield to thee 
in this. We grudge not to the Spartans their 
power by land, but we will give place to none on 
the sea. We have more seamen than all the 
Greeks; and we are of all Greeks the most 



102 TALE OF THE GEE AT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. ancient nation, and we alone have never changed 
our land ; and in the war, of which Homer sings, 
our leader was the best who came to Ilion to set 

162 an army in battle array.' Then answered Gelon, 
' Athenians, you seem likely to have many' 
leaders, but few that may be led. But since ye 
will yield nothing and grasp everything, hasten 
home and tell the Greeks that the spring-time 
has been taken out of their year.' 

163 So the messengers sailed away ; but the tale is 
also told that, as soon as Grelon heard that Xerxes 
had crossed the Hellespont, he sent Kadmos, a 
man of Kos, to Delphi, with much money and 
with friendly words, to watch and see how the 
war should go, and if Xerxes conquered, to give 
him earth and water, but if not, then to come 

165 home again. But the men of Sicily say against 
all this, that Grelon would have helped the Grreeks 
if he could, but that there came against Sicily at 
this time a great army under Hamilcar the son of 
Hanno, king of the Carthaginians; and that he 
therefore sent money for the Grreeks to Delphi 
because he was not able to help them with men. 

168 Now the messengers, who were coming from 
Grelon, came to Kerkyra, and asked the people to 
aid them ; and they answered them in fair words, 
but did nothing. For they manned sixty ships, 
and lay off the cape of Tainaros, waiting to see 
how the war would turn ; so that, if the Persian 



I 



THE THESSALIANS ASK AID OF THE GREEKS. 103 

conquered, they might have favour with him for vn. 
withholding so many ships from the battle ; and 
if the Greeks gained the day, they might say that 
the Etesian winds hindered them from coming up 
in time. 

But the men of Thessaly had taken the side of 172 
the Persians against their will ; and when they 
heard that they were going to cross over into 
Europe, they sent messengers to the Isthmus, 
where many were gathered together from the 
cities who would not yield to the barbarian. And 
they came and said, ' ye Greeks, ye must 
guard the passes of Olympos, that so Thessaly 
and all Hellas may be safe from the enemy. We 
will do what we can ; but you must also send an 
army to help us, and, if not, we must make our 
peace with the Persian. We, who lie in his path 
first, cannot all be sacrificed for those who will 
not aid us.' Then they determined to send an 173 
army by sea, which sailed through the Euripos 
and then went by land from Alos to the vale of 
Tempo which lies between Ossa and Olympos. 
There they pitched their camp and abode a few 
days, until a messenger came from Alexander the 
son of Amyntas, a Macedonian, to bid them 
depart lest they should be trampled down by the 
great host of the Persians. So they followed this 
counsel, chiefly because they learnt that there 
was another pass into Thessaly through the 



104 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

country of the Perrhebians by the city of Gronnos ; 
and, marching down to the sea, they sailed back 

174 to the Isthmus. And the men of Thessaly, when 
they found themselves forsaken, went over alto- 
gether to the Persian, and were ever after most 
useful to the king. 

175 So the Grreeks at the Isthmus took counsel 
whpre they should fix the war ; and the counsel 
which prevailed was that they should guard the 
pass in Thermopylai, because it was a single pass 
and narrower than the entrance into Thessaly or 
the Peloponnesos. Nor did they know, until 
they came to Thermopylai and learnt it from the 
men of Trachis, that there was yet another path, ■ 
by which those who kept the pass were at length 
taken. And while the army went thither, the 
ships were sent to Artemision in the land of 

176 Histiaia, because it was near at hand. For the 
Thracian sea becomes narrow between the island 
of Skiathos and the Magnesian land ; and from 
that point of Euboia which is opposite to this 
strait begins the Artemisian shore. Now the 
pass through Trachis is about fifty feet wide, 
where narrowest, but at Thermopylai and Alpenoi 
there is room only for a single wheel-track ; and 
near Anthela it becomes again as narrow. Be- 
tween these two spots there rises on the west a 
rugged and steep mountain, and on the east is 
marsh and sea. Here also are warm springs, and 



I 



THE PASS OF THERMOPYLAI. 105 

an altar built to Herakles. There was also a wall vn. 
to this pass, and gates, with which the Phokians 
sought to shut out the Thessalians when they 
came to dwell in the ^olian land. The greater 
part of this wall had fallen by age, but many 
thought that they should raise it again and meet 
the Persian here, while they could get food from 
the village of Alpenoi. 

Meanwhile the Delphians besought the god for 178: 
themselves and for their country, and the priestess 
bade them pray to the winds, for these could 
greatly befriend Hellas. With this answer they 
cheered all who dreaded the coming of the Per- 
sian, and won for themselves undying gratitude. 
And ten of the Persian ships found three ships of 179 
the Grreeks keeping watch at Skiathos, which fled 
at sight of them. But the one which came from iso 
Troizen was taken ; and the Persians led the 
fairest man of the crew to the prow of the ship, 
and there slew him for good omen, as being the 
first and most beautiful of the Grreeks whom they 
had taken. Another which came from Aigina 18I 
gave them some trouble, for Pytheas, one of the 
crew, fought fiercely until his whole body was cut 
and wounded; and when he fell, the Persians 
sought by every means to save him alive and to 
heal his wounds with ointments and fine linen, 
and showed him to all the army as one who had 
done great deeds, and treated him kindly : but all 



106 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Yii. 182 the rest thej^ made slaves. The third ship, which 
came from Athens, escaped to the mouth of the 
Peneios, where it was taken by the Persians ; but 
the men had leaped on shore, and went by land 
to Athens. All this the Greeks at Artemision 
learnt by fire-beacons from Skiathos, and they 
fled in great fear to Chalkis to guard the Euripos, 
and left watchmen on the high lands of Euboia. 

184 Thus far the army of the barbarian had gone 
without hurt; and its numbers, so far as I can 
tell, were these. In the ships were fifty-one 
myriads of men; and the Persian army, which 
came by land, had more than one hundred and 
eighty myriads of footmen and horsemen and of 

185 Arabs who rode on camels. To these were added 
all those whom the king had gathered in Europe ; 
and these could not be less than two-and-thirty 

186 myriads. And the servants and traders, and all 
others who followed the army, were more in 
number perhaps than the fighting men ; so that, 
in all, Xerxes brought five hundred and twenty- 
eight myriads of men as far as Thermopylai and 

187 the shore of Sepias. But of the women, and of 
all the beasts of burden, and of Indian dogs, it 
would not be possible to count up the numbers : 
so that to me the marvel is not so much that the 
streams should fail, but that food could be found 
for so great a multitude ; for of corn alone eleven 
myriads of pecks must have been consumed each 



THE AID OF THE WINDS. 107 

day^ even if we count nothing for the women, the vn 
beasts of burden, and the dogs. And of all these 
myriads of men, none was more worthy than 
Xerxes himself, for beauty and for stature, to 
have so great power. 

But when they came to the shore between i88 
Kasthanaia and Sepias, in the Magnesian land, 
the ships that came first were moored upon the 
beach, while the rest lay beyond them at anchor 
and were ranged in rows eight deep facing the 
sea. So they lay all night ; and at break of day 
the air was clear and the sea still, but soon a 
tempest rose with a strong east wind, which is 
called here the wind of the Hellespont. Then 
those who saw the storm increasing, and who 
could so take refuge, drew their ships up on the 
shore, and escaped ; but all the ships which were 
out at sea were borne away and dashed upon the 
Ovens of Pelion, and all along the beach as far 
as Meliboia and Kasthanaia. And the story is 189 
told, that at this time the Athenians prayed to 
Boreas, because an oracle bade them call on him 
who had married their kinswoman, — for Boreas 
had for his wife Oreithyia, the daughter of Erech- 
theus ; and so, when the storm rose, they offered 
sacrifice, and besought Boreas and Oreithyia to 
aid them, by destroying the ships of the bar- 
barians as they had done before at Athos; and 
after this, they built a temple to Boreas on the loo 



108 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Anr. 190 banks of the river Ilissos. In this storm they 
who count the fewest say that there perished not 
less than four hundred ships, and men not to be 
told for number, and countless riches : so that 
this havoc was greatly a benefit to Ameinokles 
who had land in these parts, for from the shore 
he took up goblets of silver and of gold, and 
costly treasures of many kinds, until he became 

191 a very rich mau. But of the corn ships and 
others that were destroyed, the number was never 
known ; and the captains threw up a high fence 
with the wood of the wrecks, lest the Thessalians 
should fall on them in their evil plight, for the 
storm lasted for three days. At last the Magians 
offered sacrifice and appeased the wind, or else 

192 it went down of its own will. But the watchmen 
on the heights of Euboia ran down on the second 
day of the storm, and told to the Grreeks all that 
had befallen the fleet of the Persians. And when 
they heard it, they poured out libations to Po- 
seidon the Saviour, and hastened with all speed 
to Artemision, thinking that very few only of 

193 the ships would come out to meet them. But 
when the wind ceased and the sea grew calm, the 
Persians dragged down their ships, and, sailing 
along the shore, doubled the cape of Sepias, and 

194 went into the gulf of Pagasai. Of these ships, 
fifteen set out much later than the rest, and, 
chancing to see the ships of the Grreeks at Arte- 



LEONIDAS AT THERMOPTLAI. 109 

mision, took them to be their own, and, sailing vn 
down, fell into the hands of their enemies ; and 
all the men who were on board were bound with 195 
chains and sent as prisoners to the Corinthian 
Isthmus ; but the rest of the Persian fleet reached 196 
Aphetai in safety. And Xerxes went on through 
Thessaly and Achaia, and encamped in Trachis, 
in the Melian land; while the Greeks lay in the 201 
pass which is called Thermopylai. Here there 202 
were gathered together three hundred hoplites of 
the Spartans, and one thousand of the men of 
Teo'ea and Mantineia; and others from the Ar- 
kadian Orchomenos, from Corinth and Mykenai, 
and some also of the Thespians and the Thebans. 
Thither also had come many of the Lokrians of 203 
Opous, and of the Phokians, at the bidding of the 
Greeks, who told them that many more were 
coming up behind them, and that the men of 
Athens and Aigina were guarding the sea : so 
that they had no cause for fear, for it was no god 
who was invading Hellas but a mortal man, and 
no man lived who should never see evil, nay, that 
the greatest of men suffer the worst of evils ; and 
so the Persian, as being mortal, should fall from 
his great glory. So they came to help the Greeks 204 
at Trachis ; and the chief of all this army was 
Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas, king of Sparta, 
with whom there came three hundred chosen men 



110 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

II. of Lacedsemon. And the Thehans he summoned to 
Pylai, because it was noised abroad that they were 
greatly favouring the Persian, and he wished to 
know whether they would take his side openly or 
not. So they dealt craftily with Leonidas, and 

206 sent four hundred men. 

These, theo, were sent on first, while the rest 
remained behind, for the Karneian feast was at 
hand in Sparta, and the great games of Olympia 
fell also at this time. So they proposed to march 
when these should be ended, for they never 

207 thought that the strife in Thermopylai would so 
soon be over. In the meanwhile, the Grreeks 
took counsel with Leonidas, and some wished to 
fall back and guard the Isthmus ; but the men 
of Phokis and the Lokrians were urgent that they 
should stay, and send messengers for more help, 
because they were but a few men to fight mth 
the great army of the Persians. 

208 While they thus took counsel, Xerxes sent a 
horseman to learn their numbers and see what 
they were doing ; and he came to their camp, but 
he could not see it all, for he was hindered by the 
wall which the Grreeks had raised up again. But 
outside of it were the Lacedaemonians, and their 
arms were piled against the wall, while some of 
them were wrestling and others were combing 
their hair. And he marvelled at the sight, and 
having counted their numbers went back quietly 



XERXES TALKS WITH DEMARATOS. Ill 

(for none pursued him or took notice of him), and vi 
told Xerxes all that he had seen. 

Now the king could not understand that they 209 
were making ready either to die or to slay their 
enemies, but thought that they were doing childish 
and silly things. So he sent for Demaratos and 
asked him what all this might mean ; and he said, 
^ When we first set out against Hellas, I told thee 
about these men, and thou didst mock my words 
when I said how these things would end. Yet it 
is most needful for me to speak the truth before 
thee ; wherefore hearken now. These men are 
here to fight for the pass; and when they have 
to face a mortal danger, their custom is to comb 
and deck out their hair. Be sure then that if 
thou canst conquer these and the rest who remain 
behind in Sparta, there is no other nation which 
shall dare to raise a hand against thee, for now 
art thou face to face with the bravest men of all 
Hellas.' But Xerxes believed him not, and asked 
how so few men could ever fight with his great 
army. And Demaratos said, ' king, deal with 
me as with a liar, if these things come not to pass 
as I say.' But Xerxes would not believe him still, 210 
and four days he waited, thinking that they would 
assuredly run away; but when he found that 
they remained there in folly and lack of shame, 
he was angry and charged the Medians and 
Kissians to go and bring them all bound before 



112 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

^11. him. So they hastened to take them, but many 
were slain ; and although others came up, yet 

211 could they not prevail. After these came chosen 
men of the Persians, who were called Immortals, 
with Hydarnes for their leader; and they thought 
to take them easily, but fared no better, for their 
spears were shorter than those of the Greeks, and 
their numbers were of no use in the narrow pass. 
And the Lacedaemonians fought bravely and wisely, 
and, pretending sometimes to fly, drew the bar- 
barians into the pass, when they turned upon 
them suddenly and slew great multitudes, until 

212 they all fled back to their camp. Thrice in this 
battle the king leaped from his throne in terror 
for his army ; but on the next day he sent them 
forth again, thinking that the enemy would be 
too weary to fight. But they were all drawn 
out in battle array, save only the Phokians ; and 
these were placed upon the hill to guard the 
pathway. So the Persians fared as they had 
done before, and then went back to their camp. 

213 And the king was greatly troubled, until there 
came a Melian named Ephialtes, in hope of some 
great reward, and, telling him of the path which 
led over the hill to Thermopylai, destroyed the 
Grreeks who were guarding it. This man fled 
£Cfterwards in terror to Thessaly, and the Pylago- 
roi put a price on his head, when the Amphiktyons 
were gathered together at Pylai ; and at last he was 



THE WATCH OF THE PHOKIANS 113 

slain by a man of Trachis at Antikyra. There is vn. 214 
indeed another story which says that two other 
men showed Xerxes the path ; but the Pylagoroi 
put the price on the head of Ephialtes, and surely 
they must have known best who betrayed the 
path to the Persians, 

Then Xerxes, in great joy, sent Hydarnes with 215 
his men from the camp, as the daylight died 
away. And all night long they followed the path 217 
Anopaia, with the mountains of Oita on the right 
and the hills of Trachis on the left. The day 
was dawning when they reached the peak of the 
mountain ; and there the thousand hoplites of the 
Phokians were keeping watch and guarding the 
pathway, for they had charged themselves with 
this task of their own free will. While the 218 
Persians were climbing the hill, the Phokians 
knew not of their coming, for the whole hill was 
covered with oak trees ; but they knew what had 
happened when the Persians reached the summit. 
Not a breath of wind was stirring, and they heard 
the trampling of their feet as they trod on the 
fallen oak leaves. At once they started up, and 
before they had well put on their arms, the bar- 
barians were upon them. But the Persians were 
frightened as they saw men making ready to fight, 
for Hydarnes had not thought to meet any ; but 
when he learnt from Ephialtes that these were 
not the Lacedsemonians, he drew out his men for 

I 



114 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

II. battle. And the Phokians, covered with a shower 
of arrows^ fell back to the highest ground, because 
they thought that the Persians were coming chiefly 
against them; and there they made ready to 
fight and die. But the Persians, taking no more 
heed of them, hastened with all speed down the 
hill. 

219 In the pass itself, the soothsayer Megistias, as 
he looked upon the victims, first told them that on 
the next day they must die. There came deserters 
also, who said that the Persians were coming round ; 
and as the day was dawning watchmen also ran 
to tell them the same thing. Then the Grreeks 
took counsel, and some urged flight and went 
away each to his own city, while others remained 

'-^20 with Leonidas. But there is another story that 
he sent them away himself lest they should all be 
slain; and this tale I rather believe — that he knew 
them to be faint-hearted, and so suffered them not 
to stay, but that it was not seemly for himself to 
fly. So he stayed where he was, and left behind 
him a great uame, and the happiness of Sparta 
failed not. For the priestess of Delphi had told 
the Spartans when the war began, that either 
Lacedsemon must be wasted or their king must 
die. So Leonidas thought upon her words and 
sent them away, that so the Spartans might have 

221 all the glory. And of this there is yet this further_ 
proof, that he sought to send away the soothsayer 



THE LAST BATTLE IN THERMOPTLAL 115 

Megistias" because he was an Akarnanian, but \i 
Megistias would not go. Yet he sent home his 
only son, who was with him in the army. 

So all the rest departed, and the Thebans and 222 
Thespians alone remained. The men of Thebes 
Leonidas kept sorely against their will, as pledges 
for their people; but the Thespians would not 
save their own lives by forsaking Leonidas and 
his men ; so they remained and died with them, 
and their leader was Demophilos, the son of Dia- 
dromes. 

When the sun rose, Xerxes poured out wine to 223 
the god, and tarried until the time of the filling 
of the market, for such was the bidding of Ephi- 
altes, because the path down the hill was much 
shorter than the way which led up it on the 
other side. Then the barbarians arose for the on- 
set ; and the men of Leonidas knew now that they 
must die, and on this day they came out into the 
wider part of the pass, for, before, they had fought 
in the narrowest place. As soon as the battle 
began, there fell very many of the barbarians, for 
the leaders of their companies drove every man 
on with scourges and blows. Many fell into the 
sea and were drowned ; many more were trampled 
down alive by one another; and no thought was 
taken of those who fell. And the Spartans fought 
on with all their might, to slay as many of the 
barbarians as they could, before they should them- 

I 2 



116 



TALE OF THE GBEAT PERSIAN WAB. 



Jl 



VII. selves be slain by the men who were coming round 
the hill. 

224 So they fought on till almost all their spea; 
were broken, and they slaughtered the Persians 
with their swords. At last Leonidas fell nobly, 
and other Spartans with him, whose names I 
learnt as of men whose memory ought not to be 
lost ; and for this reason I learnt the names of all 

225 the Three Hundred. Then over the body of Leo- 
nidas there was a hard fight, in which fell many 
great men of the Persians, and among them two 
brothers of the king. But the Spartans gained 
back his body, and turned the enemy to flight 
four times, until the traitor Ephialtes came up 
with his men. Then the face of the battle was 
changed, for the Greeks went back into the narrow 
part within the wall, and there they sat down, all 
in one body except the Thebans, on the hillock 
where now the lion stands over the grave of 
Leonidas. In this spot, they who yet had them 
fought with daggers, and the rest as they could, 
while the barbarians overwhelmed them, some in 
front, some digging down the wall, others pressing 
round them on every side. 

228 So fell the Thespians and the Spartans. Of the 
latter, the bravest man, it is said, was Dienekes, 
who, as the tale runs, heard from a man of Trachis, 
just before the battle, that whenever the Persians 
shot their arrows the sun was darkened by them, 



, THE EPITAPHS OF THE SPARTANS. 117 

and answered merrily, ' Our friend from Trachis vn. 
brings us good news. If their arrows hide the 
sun, we shall be able to fight in the shade.' 

They were all buried where they fell ; and over 228 
those who died before Leonidas sent the allies 
away, were these words written : 

* Four thousand men of Peloponnesos 
Here fought with three hundred myriads.* 

But there was another writing over the Spartans 
by themselves, which said : 

* Tell the Spartans, at their bidding, 
Stranger, here in death we lie ; ' 

and over the soothsayer were written these words : 

* This is the grave of the seer Megistias, whom the Medes 

slew 
When they had crossed the river Spercheios. 
Well he knew the fate that was coming, 
But he could not forsake the leaders of the Spartans/ 

Of these three hundred Spartans there is a story 229 
told, that two, Eurytos and Aristodemos, were 
lying sick in the village of Alpenoi. These men 
would not make up their minds to do the same 
thing ; but Eurytos called for his arms, and bade 
his guide to lead him (for his eyes were diseased) 
into the battle. So the guide led him and then 
ran away^ while Eurytos plunged into the fight 



118 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



3k td|l 



tie- 

vaM\ 



n. and was slain ; and Aristodemos went back 

230 Sparta alone. Some say, however, that these two 
had been sent as messengers from the camp, and 
that the one loitered on his errand and was late 
for the fight, while the other hastened back and 
was killed. Now, if both had returned together 
to Sparta, I do not think that the Spartans would 
have been angry : but coming alone, he was 

231 avoided by all. None would kindle a fire for him, 
none would speak to him, but everyone called 
him Aristodemos the dastard. Yet this man 
made good his name, and fell nobly in the battle- 
which was afterwards fought at Plataiai. 

232 And yet one other of these three hundred wa 
sent, they say, on an errand into Thessaly, and so" 
was not in the fight. This man also the Spartans 
dishonoured, so that he slew himself in his misery. 

233 Now the Thebans, as long as they were with the 
Spartans in the battle, were compelled to fight 
against the king. But when Leonidas with his 
men hastened to the hillock within the wall, they 
got away, and with hands stretched out went to-B| 
wards the barbarians with the truest of all tales, 
saying that they were on the king's side and were 
the first to give him earth and water, and that 
they were guiltless of the hurt which had been 
done to him, because they were in the battle 
sorely against their will. To these words the, 
Thessalians also bare witness ; so their lives were 



XERXES TALKS AGAIN WITH DEMAEATOS. 119 

spared : but some had the bad luck to be killed vn. 
as they came near to the Persians, and most of 
the others were branded with the royal mark^ be- 
ginning from their chieftain Leontiadas.^ 

After this Xerxes sent for Demaratos and said^ 234 
^ Thou art a wise man, Demaratos, as I judge 
from this, that all has turned out according to thy 
words. Now tell me how many of the Lacedae- 
monians are left, and are they all warriors like 
those who have been slain here ? ' Then he an- 
swered, ' king, the Lacedaemonians have many 

' That the Hellenic forces assembled at Thermopylai suffered 
a defeat, is indisputable : but the details of the event are even 
more uncertain than those of the battle of Marathon. According 
to the numbers given, Leonidas miist have had under his com- 
mand a force of not less than 8,300 men. The religious infatu- 
ation of the Spartans may explain adequately the small number 
of their citizens present at Thermopylai ; but the absence of the 
Athenians involves a much more serious difficulty, on which 
Niebuhr lays great stress. Yet with the forces at his disposal 
Leonidas succeeded for ten or twelve days in checking the 
advance of the whole Persian army and inflicting on them a 
very serious loss. Nothing could prove more clearly the practi- 
cability of the position. Even after the betrayal of the path by 
Ephialtes, and when the allies (with the exception of the Thes- 
pians and of the Thebans, who did as little in the conflict as they 
could) had been sent away, 20,000 Persians are said to have 
been slain by 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians. If this enor- 
mous loss was caused by so scanty a band, what must have been 
the result if Leonidas had kept the troops whom he dismissed ? 
It would seem that the imputation of bad generalship is the 
price which Leonidas must pay for the glory of his self-devo- 
tion. 



120 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

ir. men and many cities. One of them, which ii 
called Sparta, has about eight thousand men ; an 
these are all equal to the men who have fought 
here. The others are not indeed so strong, but 
yet they are brave men.' Then Xerxes asked him, 
^ How shall we conquer these men with the least 
trouble ? Tell me, for thou knowest the secrets of 
their counsels, because thou hast been their king.' 

235 And Demaratos said, ^ If thou really seekest my 
judgment, king, then I must give thee the best 
counsel. Send three hundred ships to the La- 
konian coast. Over against it lies an island called 
Kythera, of which Chilon, a very wise man, said 
that it would be better for the Spartans if it were 
sunk in the depths of the sea. He did not indeed 
know of thy coming, but he feared lest any army 
should seize it. Let thy ships then sweep their 
coasts from this island and scare them, and so, 
with war at their very doors, there is no fear of 
their coming hitherwards to help the Grreeks ; and 
when the rest of Hellas is enslaved, then the La- 
konians will easily fall into thy hands. Otherwise 
this will be the issue. A narrow isthmus leads 
into the Peloponnesos, and there thou wilt have to 
fight greater battles than those which have been 
fought already.' 

236 But Achaimenes, the brother of Xerxes, who 
was admiral of the fleet, stood by, and, hearing 
this, feared that Demaratos would persuade him 



i\ 



XERXES INSULTS THE BODY OF LEONID AS. 121 

SO he said, ' king, thou art listening to a man vi 
who is jealous of thy good fortune, or perhaps a 
traitor. This is the way of the Greeks. They 
envy the prosperous, and hate everyone who is 
better than themselves. Now, in our last mishap, 
four hundred ships have been broken ; and if 
three hundred more are sent away, the enemy is 
at once a match for us. If all remain together, 
they cannot well be beaten ; and the army on land 
and the ships at sea will greatly help one the other. 
Order thy own matters, and take no heed to the 
counsels of the enemy, their doings, or their num- 
bers. They can take care of their own business, 
and we of ours. And if the Lacedaemonians do 
come out to fight, that is no remedy for their pre- 237 
sent hurt.' Then the king answered, ' Thy words 
are good, Achaimenes, and I will do as thou wilt. 
Demaratos too has given me his best counsel, but 
he is not so wise as thou art. For I never will 
believe that he is not my friend. His former 
words are my warrant, and so is this, that one 
citizen may envy another and will grudge him his 
counsel unless he be a very good man ; and such 
men are rare ; but it is different with a stranger 
to the man who is his friend. Let everyone then 
take heed how he speaks evil of Demaratos, whom 
I have made my friend/ 

Then Xerxes went through the dead, and he 238 
ordered that the head of Leonidas should be cut 



122 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

II. off (when he learnt that he was their king and 
leader), and his body hung upon a cross. And 
this makes it clear, even if it had not been plain 
before, that Xerxes was wroth with Leonidas 
while he lived, more than with any other man ; 
for the Persians always greatly honour those who 
have fought against them bravely. 

239 Now it was from Demaratos himself that the 
Lacedaemonians first learnt that the king was 
coming ; for when he was at Sousa he heard that 
he was going against Hellas, and he longed to tell 
it to the Spartans, who had driven him away from 
being king. So we may shrewdly judge whether 
he told them in friendship or in mockery. Fear- 
ing then that he might be caught if he did it in 
any other way, he took a double writing-tablet, 
and, scraping off the wax, scratched upon the 
wood all that he wished to say, and then melted 
the wax again over the letters. So the guardians 
of the roads took no heed to an empty tablet; and 
when it reached Lacedaemon, they could make 
nothing of it, until Grorgo, the daughter of Kleo- 
menes (who was now the wife of Leonidas), said 
that, if they scraped off the wax, they would find 
letters upon the wood. So they read the message 
of Demaratos, and then they sent to tell all the 
Greeks that the great king was coming. 



123 



CHAPTEK VI. 



THE STRIFE OF SHIPS AND STOEMS AT ARTEMISION. — THE 
SIGHT-SEEING AT THERMOPYLAI. — THE PERSIANS AT 
DELPHI. 



Earth was quaking to her centre, 

Heaven was all a sheet of flame, 
When the stroke of righteous judgment 

On the haughty spoiler came. 
Then the peaks of high Parnassos, 

Shivered in the tempest's blow, 
Showered a thousand craggy ruins 

On the guilty ones below. 

E. A. Feeemak. 

Now the ships of the Greeks were gathered iiemdotus 
together at Artemision, two hundred and seventy- 
one in all. Of these the Athenians gave one 
hundred and twenty-seven^ which the men of 
Plataiai in their zeal helped them to man, for 
they themselves knew nothing of the sea. And 
the men of Corinth sent forty ships, and the men 
of Megara twenty. There were also ships from 
Aigina, Sikyon and Epidauros, from Eretria and 
Troizen. The Lacedaemonians also sent ten, while 
the men of Chalkis manned twenty ships which 



124 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



« 



2 the Athenians gave to them. And the leader 
who had the chief power was Eurybiades the«| 
Spartan, for the Greeks said that they would obey 
none but the Spartans, and that they would 
immediately go away if the Athenians were to 

3 rule. So the Athenians gave way nobly, for they 
sought before all things to save Hellas, and, know- 
ing that it must fall if they strove among them- 
selves for power, they resolved to bide their time ; 
and this soon came, for, when they had driven 
back the Persians to Asia, the allies took away 
the chief power from the Lacedaemonians, because 
Pausanias/as they said, had grown wanton in his 
pride. 

4 From Artemision they saw the ships of the 
Persians at Aphetai and the land full of men ; 
and they determined to flee. In vain the Eu- 
boians tried to persuade Eurybiades to stay until 
they could take their wives and children away. 
So they went to Themistokles, the general of the 
Athenians, and gave him thirty talents that he 

5 might make the Grreeks fight before Euboia. Of 
these talents he gave five to Eurybiades, and so 
prevailed with him ; but when Adeimantos the 
Corinthian stood out and refused to fight at Arte- 
mision Themistokles sent him a message, say- 
ing, ^Thou shalt not leave us, for I will give 
thee more money than the king of the Medes 
would send thee for forsaking thy friends ;' and 



1 



SKYLLIAS THE DIYER. 125 

with this message he sent three talents of silver, ^ 
and won over Adeimantos. So they stayed near 6 
Euboia and fought there. 

And as the sun was now going down in the 
sky, the barbarians at Aphetai saw that a few 
ships of the Grreeks were lying in wait at Arte- 
mision and were eager to take them; but they 
would not sail out against them, lest the Grreeks 
should see them and flee away during the night, 
for their mind was not to let a man of them live. 
So they chose out two hundred ships and sent 7 
them round Skiathos, so that they might sail 
round Euboia and, coming to the Euripos without 
being seen, might attack the enemy in the rear, 
while they themselves should bear down on them 
in front so soon as they should see the signal 
which was to be set up. And after this they 
began to count the ships at Aphetai. 

Now in their army there was a great diver 8 
named Skyllias of Skione, who in the storm at 
Pelion had saved many things for the Persians 
and taken a great many for himself, and who, 
wishing to go to the Greeks, had not been able to 
do so until now. But while they were counting 
the ships, he dived (as some say) into the sea 
at Aphetai and came up at Artemision, after 
swimming about eighty furlongs under the water. 
But of this man many other things are said which 
look much like lies, and I believe that he escaped 



126 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

ii. to Artemision in a boat ; and when he came, he 
told them of the great storm, and of the ships 
which were sailing round Euboia. 
9 Then the Greeks took counsel, and determined 
to wait where they were till midnight, and then 
to go and meet the ships which were coming 
round the island. And as no one came against 
them from Aphetai, they sailed out themselves, 
when the day was now far spent, to make trial 

10 of the enemy. When the Persians saw them 
coming, they thought them mad, and put out to 
sea, thinking easily to take them ; and with their 
multitude of ships they surrounded the Greeks, 
so that the lonians, who were with the king 
against their will, were grieved for the destruction 
which, as they thought, was now come upon their 
kinsmen ; while the rest sought each to seize first 
an Athenian ship, and so to gain the prize from 
the king, — for the Athenians always counted most 
with the Persians 

11 So, when the signal was given for battle, the 
Greeks brought the stern of their ships together, 
and then began the fight prow to prow, although 
they had but a little space. Then Lykomedes, 
an Athenian, took the first ship of the barbarians, j 
after which nine-and-twenty more were taken ; 
and the night came on, and the Persians fell back > 
to Aphetai, having fared not at all as they had 

12 hoped. All night long there was heavy rain, for 



THE PERSIANS ARE TROUBLED. 127 

it was midsummer, with much thunder from vm. 
Mount Pelion ; and the dead, with pieces of the 
wrecks, being carried towards Aphetai, clogged 
the prows of the ships and the oars. And the 
men on the land were greatly afraid when they 
heard this, and looked for death to all, — for 
tempest and shipwreck had been followed by 
battle, and after the battle again came storm and 
thunder and torrents hurrying from the moun 
tains to the sea ; and a miserable night they 
spent. But it was much more miserable for the 
ships w^hich were sailing round Euboia, for on 
these the storm fell more fiercely as they laboured 
in the sea. Carried along by the gale, and not 
knowing whither they were borne, they were 
dashed against the rocks ; and all this was done 
by the god, that the Persian army might be 
brought more nearly to the number of the Greeks. 

Gladly the barbarians at Aphetai saw the day u 
dawn ; but, after so much buffeting, they were 
well content to stay still. But to the aid of the 
Greeks there came fifty-three Athenian ships ; 
and a message was brought that all the ships 
sailing round Euboia had been broken by the 
storm. Falling in after this with some Kilikian 
ships, they destroyed them, and, when the night 
came on, sailed back to Artemision. 

On the third day, the chiefs of the Persians, 15 
vexed that so few ships should thus annoy them. 



128 TALE OF THE GBEAT PERSIAN WAE. 

VIII. and dreading what the king might do to them, 
waited no longer for the enemy to begin the 
battle, but put out to sea about midday. And 
these things happened here at the same time that 
Leonidas and his men were fighting at Thermo- 
pylai ; and as they fought to keep the pass^ so 
these fought to guard the Euripos, while the 
barbarians cheered each other on to destroy the 
16 Greeks and force the passage. So they came on 
with their ships drawn up in a half-circle to sur- 
round the Greeks, who sailed straight to meet 
them. In this battle both fared much alike ; for 
the ships of Xerxes were entangled by their own 
numbers, and dashed against each other ; still 
they held out strongly, for they could not bear 
to be put to flight by so few. The Greeks also 
lost many ships and men, though their enemies 

18 lost more. So both departed gladly to their place 
of anchoring; and the Greeks got back their dead 
and the broken ships, and began to think again of 
flight, for they had been roughly handled and 
half of the Athenian ships disabled. 

19 Then Themistokles thought that, if he could 
draw away the lonians and Karians, they would 
be a match for their enemies ; and, gathering th^ 
generals together on the shore where the Euboians 
were bringing down their cattle to the sea, he 
told them of his design, and bade all who wished 
to sacrifice to light a fire and offer some of the 



THE SCOUT COMES FEOM TRACHIS. 129 

Euboian cattle, since it was better that they vm. 
should have them than their enemies. Thus the 20 
Euboians lost their cattle, because they would 
not give heed to the prophecy of Bakis which 
said : 

'When he that speaks in a barbarian tongue 
shall cast a yoke into the sea, 

' Take good heed to send away from Euboia the 
bleating goats.' 

At this time came the scout from Trachis. 21 
For two were placed, each wdth a boat ready^ 
the one at Artemision to tell the men in Ther- 
mopylai if any evil befell the fleet, the other with 
Leonidas to brinof tidiness to Artemision if he 
and his men fared ill. When they heard what 
had happened, they tarried no longer, but set out, 
the Corinthians first and the Athenians last. And 22 
Themistokles, with some of the best sailing ships, 
went to all places where they might get water; 
and on the rocks he cut these words, which the 
lonians read when they came up the day after, 
^ Ye do wrong, lonians, by going against your 
fathers and bringing Hellas into slavery. If ye 
can, take our side. If ye cannot, then fight for 
neither, and pray the Karians to do likewise. But 
if this also be impossible, at least in the battle be 
slack and lazy, remembering that ye are sprung 
from us, and that we are fighting in a quarrel 
which ye began.' This Themistokles did, as it 

K 



130 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

II. would seem, for two reasons : either he would win 
over the lonians to their side, or he would make 
Xerxes suspect them and keep them back from 
any part in the battles which might be fought. 

23 Soon after this there came a man of Histiaia to 
the Persians, and said that the Greeks had fled 
from Artemision. And they guarded him with 
care (for they believed him not), and sent some 
swift ships to see. When these brought the same 
news, the whole fleet sailed to Artemision, and 
thence to Histiaia, where they overran all the 
villages on the sea-shore. 

24 Meanwhile Xerxes had been arranging a sight 
for the seamen. Twenty thousand of his men 
had been slain at Thermopylai. Of these he left 
one thousand on the ground ; the rest he buried 
in trenches under leaves and earth, so that they 
could not be seen. When all was ready, he sent 
a herald throughout his army, who said, ^All 
wno please may leave their posts and go to see 
how the king fights against those foolish men 

2.3 who thought to withstand his power.' On this, 
so many desired to go, that there was a lack of 
boats to carry them. And when they had crossed, 
they went over the battle-ground ; and all knew 
the LacedaBmonians and Thespians, with the he- 
lots lying beside them : but not less did they see 
through the trick of Xerxes, for it was a thing to 
laugh at, when the thousand Persians lay by 



I 



THE PKIZE OF THE OLYMPIAN GAMES. 131 

themselves, and the four thousand Greeks were vm. 
gathered into a single heap. So all that day they 
spent in seeing this sight, and on the day follow- 
ing went back to their ships, while the land army 
went on its way. 

At this time there came to the Persians some 26 
men of Arkadia who wished to work for the king. 
And when they were brought before him, they 
were asked what the Greeks were doing. Then 
they said that they were keeping the feast at 
Olympia and beholding the contests of wrestlers 
and horsemen. On hearing this, one of the Per- 
sians asked what the prize might be for which 
they strove ; and he was told that it was an olive- 
wreath. Then Tritantaichmes, the son of Arta- 
banos, could no longer keep silence, but said, 
^ Ah, Mardonios, what sort of men are these with 
whom thou hast brought us here to fight, who 
strive not for money but for glory ! ' And for this 
saying the king held him to be a coward. 

Meanwhile, after the death of Leonidas in 27 

Therm opylai, the Thessalians sent a herald to the 

men of Phokis, whom they greatly hated because 

the Phokians had done them much evil in war 

in times past, and said to them, ^ Men of Phokis, 29 

we are stronger than you. We were mightier 

i even before the Persian came ; but now we are in 

i so great favour with the king that, if we please, 

' we can take your land away and make you all 

K 2 



132 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VIII. slaves. Still, we bear you no malice. Give us 

30 fifty talents, and no evil shall befall you.' This 
message they sent, because the Phokians were the 
only people in those parts who did not take the 
side of the Persians. And I believe that they 
did not do so, merely because they so hated the 
Thessalians ; and that they would have joined the 
king, if the Thessalians had not done so. As it 
was, they made answer that they would give them 

31 no money, nor be traitors to Hellas. Then the 
Thessalians were very angry, and led the bar- 
barians against them, through the country of the 
Dorians, which they did not hurt because they 

32 were on the king's side. But when they came 
into the Phokian land, they found that some of 
the people had gone up to the tops of Mount Par- 
nassos, and many more to the Ozolian Lokrians, 
to the city of Amphissa which lies above the Kris- 
saian plain. Then over the whole of Phokis the 
storm of war burst, for the men of Thessaly led 
the Persians everywhere and burnt the cities and 

33 the temples. Charadra and Tethronion, Neon 
and Hyampolis, Erokos and Elateia, none were 
spared, but all, with the rest, were burnt. At 
Abai also they set fire to the temple when they 
had plundered its treasures, and slew some of the 
Phokians whom they took as they drew near to 
the mountains. 

34 But when they reached Panopeai, the army 



THE PEESIANS AT DELPHI. 133 

was divided, and the more part went on with y 
Xerxes against Athens, and marched into Boiotia, 
of which all the people had given him earth and 35 
water. The others set off with their leaders to 
Delphi, to plunder the temple and bring all its 
wealth to the king, who knew the treasures which 
were there as well as he knew what he had left at 
home, for there was no lack of men to tell him. 
Onwards they marched, keeping Parnassos on the 
right, burning and slaying everywhere, so that 36 
the Delphians were dismayed, and asked the god 
whether they should bury his holy treasures or 
carry them away. And the god said, ' Move 
them not: I am able to guard them.' Then the 
Delphians took thought for themselves, and sent 
their women and children across into the land of 
the Achaians, while most of them climbed up to 
the peaks of Parnassos and to the cave of Korykos, 
and others fled to Amphissa. So there remained 
in Delphi only sixty men, and the prophet who 
was named Akeratos. As the barbarians drew 37 
nigh and were now in sight, the prophet saw lying 
in front of the temple the sacred arms which used 
to hang in the holy place, and which it was not 
lawful for man to touch ; and he went to tell the 
Delphians of the marvel. But there were greater 
wonders still, as the barbarians came up in haste 
to the chapel of Athene which stands before 
the great temple, for the lightnings burst from 



134 



II 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



^ heaven, and two cliffs torn from the peaks of 
Parnassos dashed down with a thundering sound 
and crushed great multitudes, and fierce cries 
and shoutings were heard from the chapel of 

38 Athene. Utterly dismayed and thrown together 
in the uproar, the barbarians turned to flee ; and 
when the Delphians saw this, they came down 
from the mountain and slew' many more, while 
the rest hurried with all speed to the Boiotian 
land, and said that two hoplites, higher in stature 
than mortal men, had followed behind, slaying 
and driving them from Delphi. 

29 These, the Delphians say, were the two heroes 
of the land, Phylakos and Autonoos, whose chapels 
stand near the great temple. And the rocks 
which fell from Parnassos lie in the sacred ground 
of Athene, into which they were hurled as they 
crushed the host of the barbarians. 



135 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE GEEEKS AT SALAMIS. — THE EIGHT AND VICTORY. — 
THE COUNSEL OE MARDONIOS. — THE ELIGHT TO SARDES. 



A king sate on the rocky brow 

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
And ships by thousands lay below, 

And men in nations ; — all were his. 
He counted them at break of day — 
And when the sun set, where were they ? 

Byeon. 

When the ships of the Greeks sailed away from Herodotus 

^ . ^ VIII. 40 

Artemision^ they anchored at Salamis, because the 
Athenians wished to take their wives and children 
away from Attica, and also to take counsel what 
they ought to do. They had looked to find all the 
Peloponnesians awaiting the enemy in Boiotia ; 
but, instead of this, they learnt that they were 
strengthening the Isthmus, not caring for the rest 
of Hellas, if only the Peloponnesos could be saved. 
So the rest anchored at Salamis, while the Athe- 41 
nians went to their own country, and ordered all 
to take heed to their children and households. 



136 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIxVN WAR. 

n. These were mostly sent away to Troizen, others to 
Aigina and Salamis. And this was done in haste, 
not merely because they sought to obey the words 
of Apollo, but because the priestess told them that 
the sacred serpent which guarded the Akropolis 
had refused to take the food which every month 
was placed before it. As this had never hap- 
pened before, they were yet more eager to leave 
the city, which, as it seemed, the goddess had her- 
self forsaken. When all had been removed, they 
42 sailed away to join the rest at Salamis, whither 
also had come all the ships which had been com- 
manded to meet at Troizen. And many more 
ships were gathered here than had fought at Ar- 
temision ; and over all these was the same general, 
Eurybiades, who was a Spartan, albeit not of the 
royal race. The greatest number of ships, as well 

44 as those which sailed best, were sent by the Athe- 
nians, who manned one hundred and eighty ves- 
sels by themselves, — for the Plataians did not 
help them at Salamis as they had done at Artemi- 
sion. These had been left in their own land, 
while they were tr3nng to save their households 
before the coming of the enemy. 

45 Of the rest, the Lacedaemonians sent sixteen 
ships ; and the men of Corinth and Megara, of 
Chalkis and Eretria and Keos, furnished the same 
number as at Artemision. There were also ships 
from Sikyon and Epidauros, Troizen and Her- 



THE GATHERINa OF THE GKEEK SHIPS. 137 

mione, from Ambrakia and Leukas. And the viii. 46 
men of Aigina sent thirty ships, while they kept 
the others to guard their own island. TheNaxians 
sent four ships, which were made ready to help 
the Persians, but which they brought to Salamis 
at the bidding of Demokritos. There were also a 
few ships from Styra aud Kythnos, from Melos 
and Siphnos and Seriphos. All the other islanders 
had given earth and water to the king. And of 47 
all the Grreeks who dwell beyond the Thesprotians 
and the river Acheron, the men of Kroton alone 
sent one ship to the aid of Hellas in this her time 
of danger. So all the ships together were three 48 
hundred and seventy-eight. And when all were 49 
gathered together at Salamis, the chieftains took 
counsel with Eury blades where they ought to 
fight. Of Attica they took no thought, for the 
Athenians had already forsaken it ; but, as they 
had done before, so now most wished to sail away 
to the Isthmxus, — for they said that if they fought 
at Salamis and were beaten, they would be shut 
up and besieged in the island, where they could 
get no help ; while from the Isthmus they could 
at the least flee into their own country. While 50 
they thus took counsel, there came an Athenian 
to tell them that the barbarian was already in 
Attica, and that everything in it was given to the 
flame ; for the army of the Persians had now 
gone through Boiotia, burning the cities of Thes- 



138 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. piai and Plataiai, because these would not take 
the king's side, and had reached Athens, ravaging 
the whole land. 

61 Three months had passed away since they had 
left the Hellespont ; and they came to the city 
while Kalliadas was archon, and found it empty, 
saving only the guardians of the temple and some 
poor men who had placed doors and planks of wood 
as a kind of hedge round the Akropolis, partly be- 
cause they were not able to leave the city, but 
chiefly because they thought that this was the 
meaning of the priestess when she said that the 

52 wooden wall should not be taken. So the Per- 
sians took their post on the hill of Ares which 
faces the Akropolis, and besieged it, shooting ar- 
rows rolled round with lighted tow against the 
palisade. Still the Athenians held out within it, 
although they were sorely pressed and saw that 
their wooden wall would not save them. Nay, 
they would not even hearken to the children of 
Peisistratos who besought them to yield, but 
rolled down huge stones on the barbarians if they 
dared to approach the gates, so that Xerxes for a 

o3 long time knew not what to do. But at last he 
found a way to enter in, — for the prophecy must 
be fulfilled that all the land of Attica should fall 
into the hands of the Persian. Near the chapel 
of Aglauros, the daughter of Kekrops, no watch 
was kept, because the ground was there so steep 



THE OLIYE-TREE OF THE AKROPOLIS. 139 

that they thought none could climb up it. Up vi 
this way some of the Persians clambered ; and 
when the Athenians saw them, some threw them- 
selves down the rock and perished, and others 
fled into the temple, while the Persians hastened 
to open the gates and slay the suppliants. After 
this, they plundered the temple and burnt the 
whole Akropolis. 

Then, in the gladness of his heart, Xerxes sent 54 
a messenger to Sousa to say how he had taken 
Athens, and to tell them of all his good fortune. 
And, on the day after, he called the Athenians 
who had followed him from their exile, and bade 
them go up to the Akropolis and there sacrifice 
after the manner of their country; whether it 
was that he wished to obey some vision, or that 
he was troubled at the thought that he had burnt 
the temple. So they offered up the sacrifice ; 55 
and I tell these things for this reason. In the 
chapel of Erechtheus, the child of the earth, which 
is built on this Akropolis, there is an olive-tree 
and a well of salt water, which they say that 
Poseidon and Athene left as tokens when they 
strove together to see which of them should have 
the land. This olive-tree was burnt along with 
the chapel ; but when the Athenians went up to 
sacrifice at the bidding of the king, they saw a 
shoot which had run up already from the stem to 
the height of a cubit. 



140 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VIII. 56 When the Grreeks at Salamis heard all these 
tidings, they were so frightened that some of the 
leaders would not stay for the ending of the 
council, but, hurrying to their ships, set sail and 
fled; while those who remained decided that 
they must fight before the Isthmus. So the night 
came on, and all were scattered to their ships. 

57 And when Themistokles reached his own vessel, 
Mnesiphilos, an Athenian, asked him what was 
the end of the council ; and when he learnt that 
they were all to sail away and fight at the Isth- 
mus, he said : ' Well, if we leave Salamis, the 
men will go each to his own city, and Eury- 
biades will not be able to keep them, nor anyone 
else; and so the army will be scattered, and 
Hellas ruined by our folly. If there is any way 
of doing it, try to upset their plans, and persuade 

58 Eurybiades to stay here.' These words pleased 
Themistokles ; and, without waiting to answer 
them, he went straight to the ship of Eurybiades 
and asked to speak with him, and Eurybiades 
bade him come into the ship. Then Themistokles 
went up, and, sitting by his side, told him the 
words of Mnesiphilos as if they had been his own, 
adding many others, ufitil Eurybiades agreed to 

59 call the chieftains to another council on the shore. 
When they were met, Themistokles rose, before 
Eurybiades could say why he had called them, and 
spoke urgently, until Adeimantos, the leader of 



THE COUNCIL ON THE SHORE IN SALAMIS. 141 

the Corinthians, said, ' Themistokles, those who vm. 
rise up in the games before their time are beaten ;' 
and he answered gently, ^ Yes ; but those who 
loiter are not crowned.' Then, turning again to 
Eurybiades, he went on with his speech ; but he 60 
did not say that the allies would run away if they 
went to the Isthmus, for he could not fitly accuse 
them when they were present; but he said, ' It 
depends now upon thee to save Hellas, if thou wilt 
fight here, and not follow the advice of these men 
by taking the ships away to the Isthmus. Look 
at the matter on both sides. If we go to the Isth- 
mus, we must fight on the open sea, — the worst 
thing for our ships, which are fewer in number 
and heavier ; and even if we win the day, Salamis, 
Megara, and Aigina are lost. Nay, the land army 
of the Persians will go along with their fleet ; and 
so, by bringing them to the Peloponnesos, thou 
wilt place all Hellas in jeopardy. But my coun- 
sel has this benefit, that, by fighting in a narrow 
space,^ we shall in all likelihood win the battle ; 
and by doing this, Salamis is saved, where we 

^ rh eV (Treiv^ vav/jLax^^iv Trphs rj/xicop icrri. A complete revolu- 
tion had been effected in Athenian naval tactics before the days 
of Phormion ; and that which Themistokles desired for the Greek 
fleet at Salamis, brought both terror and destruction to the fleet 
of Nikias and Demosthenes at Syracuse. For the history and 
nature of the changes in the naval tactics of Athens, see 
Grrote, History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 409; vol. v. pp. 137, 181, 
327, &c. i&c. 



142 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



^ 



I. have placed our women and children. This is our 
concern, but it is your interest also ; for we shall 
be defending your country just as well here as if 
we were fighting at the Isthmus, while the enemy 
will not be carried on to the Peloponnesos, but 
(without going farther than Attica) will make 
their escape as best they may, and Megara and 
Aigina will be saved and also Salamis^ in which, 
besides, an oracle tells us that we are to conquer 
our enemies. Eeasonable counsels are followed 
generally by a good issue ; without them, the gods 
61 will not fling good fortune in our faces.' Then 
Adeimantos rose up in haste, bidding him be 
silent because he had now no country, and 
charging Eurybiades not to listen to one who was 
only a wanderer ; and these words he cast in his 
teeth because Athens was now in the power of 
the Persians. Then Themistokles was wroth, and 
spoke vehemently against him and the Corinthians, 
telling him that the Athenians had yet a nobler 
country and a greater city, as long as they had 
two hundred ships all well manned ; but to Eury- 
biades he spake yet more earnestly : ^ By remain- 
ing here, thou wilt show thyself a brave man. By 
going away, thou wilt destroy all Hellas, for with 
the war on land the Athenians have nothing more 
to do ; and if thou wilt not stay, we will take up 
our people from this island and sail to Siris in 
Italy, which is ours from ancient times, and to 



THE PHANTOM HOSTS OF DEMETER. 143 

which the oracles have commanded us to send ^ 
settlers. When we are gone, ye will remember 
what I said.' 

Then Eurybiades agreed to stay and fight at 63 
Salamis, because he knew that they would be no 
match for the enemy if the Athenians went away ; 
so they made ready for the battle. And the next 64 
day, as the sun rose, there was an earthquake both 
by land and sea ; so they called on the children 
of Aiakos to come and help them. Aias^ and Tela- 
mon they brought from Salamis itself; but they 
sent a ship to Aigina for Aiakos and the rest of 
his kinsfolk.^ 

Now Dikaios, an Athenian, who was with the Q5 
Persians, being an exile, said that, while they 
were plundering Athens which had been forsaken 
by its people, he chanced to be with Dema- 
ratos the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian plain, 
and saw a cloud of dust coming from Eleusis, 
such as might be raised by myriads of men. 
While they gazed at this cloud, wondering what 
men they might be, they heard a voice which 
sounded like the cry of the mysteries ; and 
Demaratos, who knew not the sacred rites of 
Eleusis, asked him what the voice said, and he 
answered, ^Demaratos, some great evil will be- 
fall the army of the king, for, as all the men 
of Attica have left their country, it must be the 
' Ajax. 2 g^e Li^y^ ^ 47^ xxix. 10, 11. 



144 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. voice of a god who is going from Eleusis to aid 
the Athenians and their a,llies. If the cloud goes 
towards Peloponnesos, the king himself and his 
land army are in jeopardy; if it turns towards 
the ships in Salamis^ it is his fleet which will 
suffer. Every year the Athenians keep the feast 
here to the Great Mother and her Child, and any 
of the Greeks who will, may be taught these mys- 
teries ; and the voice which thou hearest is the cry 
which they use in this feast.' Then Demaratos 
answered, ^Say not a word of this to anyone. 
If the king hears it thou wilt lose thy head, nor 
will anyone be able to deliver thee. Keep thy 
counsel, and let the gods take care of his army.' 
After this voice the dust-storm rose into a cloud 
and was borne on high in the direction of Salamis 
towards the ships of the Greeks ; and so they 
knew that the fleet of Xerxes must be destroyed. 
Such was the tale of Dikaios, to which Demaratos 
and others bear witness. 

66 In the meanwhile the Persians, who, after seeing 
the dead in Thermopylai, had tarried for three 
days in Histiaia, sailed through the Euripos and in 
three days more reached the haven of Phaleron ; 
and the number of those who came to Athens by 
land and sea was not much less than the number 
of those who reached Sepias and Thermopylai. 
For over against those who perished by the storms 
and those who died in Thermopylai, we must set 



THE WARNING OF ARTEMISIA. 145 

those who had not yet followed the king, the Me- vm. 
lians and Dorians and Lokrians, together with 
all the Boiotians (except the men of Thespiai and 
Plataiai), and the people of Karystos, Andros^ and 
Tenos, and of all the other islands, except the five 
cities which have been already named.^ For the 
further that the Persian went, the more people 
went with him. 

When the ships had reached Phaleron, Xerxes 67 
himself went down to the fleet, because he wished 
to see it and to hear the judgment of those who 
sailed in it. So the leaders and chieftains of the 
nations were gathered before him, and they sat 
down each as the king gave them honour, the 
king of Sidon first, and next to him the king of 
Tyre, and so with the rest. After which Xerxes 
sent Mardonios to each of them to ask whether 
they should fight by sea. So Mardonios went to 68 
all, and all gave counsel to fight, except Arte- 
misia, who said, ' Tell the kiug, I pray you, Mar- 
donios, that this is the judgment of a woman 
who has not shown herself a coward in the battles 
off Euboia, and who is bound to give him her 
best counsel ; and say to him. Spare thy ships, 
for by sea their men are as much better than thine 
as men are stronger than women. And what need 
is there to fight by sea ? Hast thou not Athens, 
for which thou camest hithe]*, with the rest of 

* See page 137. Herodotus viii. 16. 
L 



TALE OF TEE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



I. Hellas ? None stand in thy way ; they who 
so are gone, as it was but right that they should 
go. If then thou wilt keep thy ships by the land, 
or even if thou goest on to the Peloponnesos, all 
things will be according to thy mind, for the 
enemy cannot hold out long and will soon be 
scattered among their cities. They have but little 
corn, as I hear, in this island, nor is it likely, if 
thy army is sent to Peloponnesos, that they who 
belong to it will care to stay and fight for the 
Athenians at Salamis. But if thou wilt fight, I 
fear that thy fleet may suffer and cause hurt to 
thy men on land ; and ponder yet this one thing, 
king ! Good men have commonly bad servants, 
and evil men have good ones. And thou, who 
art the best of men, hast evil servants who call 
themselves thy friends, men of Egypt and Cyprus, 
of Pamphylia and Kilikia, who are of no use at 

69 all.' As she thus spake to Mardonios, they who 
were well-minded to her were grieved, because 
they thought that the king would punish her; and 
they who hated and envied her because she was 
held in great honour by the king, rejoiced that 
she would now perish. But when Xerxes heard 
it, he was greatly pleased with her judgment, and 
honoured her yet more. Still he followed the 
counsel of the rest, thinking that his men had 
been cowards at Euboia because he had not been 
present, but now they knew that he would look 
upon them while they fought. 



THE BUILDINa OF THE ISTHMIAN WALL. 147 

When the order was given for battle, they put vm. 
out to sea over against Salamis ; but there was no 70 
time to fight that day, for the night came on be- 
fore they had well arranged themselves. But they 
made ready for the next day, while the Grreeks 
were in fear and trembling (and chiefly the men 
of Peloponnesos, because they thought that, if 
they should be beaten, they would be shut up in 
the island and leave their own land unguarded). 
That same night the land army of the Persians 71 
moved on towards the Peloponnesos, where all 
things had been done to prevent their coming in. 
For when they heard of the death of Leonidas, 
they hastened to the Isthmus with Kleombrotos, 
the brother of Leonidas, for their leader, and, 
blocking up the Skironid road, built a wall across 
the Isthmus. This work was soon finished, as 
the people were many myriads, and every one 
worked with all their strength by day and by 
night, carrying stones and brick, logs of wood, 
and bags full of sand. Here were gathered the 72 
Lacedaemonians and Arkadians, the men of Elis 
and Corinth, Sikyon and Epidauros, Phlious, Troi- 
zen, and Hermione. The other Peloponnesians 
cared nothing for the danger of Hellas, or, if we 73 
may speak the truth, really took the king's side 
while they professed to take neither. Thus hard 
did they work at the Isthmus, as struggling for 74: 
their last chance, and because they thought that 

L 2 



148 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR, 

I. they would win no great glory with their ships. 
In like manner the men in Salamis were afraid, 
not so much for themselves as for the Peloponne- 
sos. For a time they spoke quietly in knots of 
men, marvelling at the folly of Eurybiades, but at 
last they burst out into loud voices ; and an assem- 
bly was gathered, and there was much talk about 
the same things, the one side saying that they 
would not stay to fight for a land which had been 
already taken, while the Athenians and the men 
of Aigina and Megara besought them to remain. 

75 When Themistokles saw that he could not pre- 
vail, he went secretly out of the council and sent 
to the Persian fleet a man named Sikinnos, who 
was his servant and the teacher of his children, 
and whom he afterwards enriched and made a 
citizen of Thespiai. This man came with his 
message to the leaders of the Persians and said, 
' Themistokles, the general of the Athenians, has 
sent me, without the knowledge of the other 
Greeks (for he is well-minded to the king and 
would rather that ye conquered than the Greeks), 
to tell you that they are going to run away from 
dread of you. And now may ye win great glory 
by hindering them from escaping, for they do not 
agree among themselves, neither will they with- 
stand you ; and you will see those who take your 

76 side fighting against those who do not.'^ Having 

* This first embassy of Sikinnos to Xerxes seems to furnish J 



THE PEESIANS MAKE KEADY FOR THE FIGHT. 149 

thus spoken, Sikinnos departed ; and the Persians, 
believing his tale, landed many men on the small 
island of Psyttaleia which lies between Salamis 
and the mainland ; and at midnight they sailed 

significant contradiction to the most serious of the charges urged 
against Themistokles. The whole career of this great leader 
shows that he was determined to resist the progress of the 
Persian forces whenever and wherever it was possible for him 
to do so. He was therefore resolved to fight at Artemis ion 
and at Salamis ; yet we are told that he was bribed to 
fight at Artemision by a gift of thirty talents from the 
Euboians. But a man cannot be said to be bribed or persuaded 
into doing that which he had resolved to do before : and it 
seems a contradiction in terms to assert that by this bribe 
Themistokles was tempted to do that which he had wished and 
probably tried to accomplish without the bribe. But whether 
with or without the money, he failed in keeping the allies at 
Artemision, and it seemed as though he must fail to retain them 
at Salamis. In this strait his ready wit devised a method for 
determining the action of the allies ; but it is strange that this 
device has nothing to do with bribery. At Artemision three 
talents had furnished to the Corinthian Adeimantos an effec- 
tual argument for submitting to the will of Themistokles. The 
latter, according to Herodotus, still had twenty-two talents of 
the Euboian money in his hands. Why then did he not bribe 
Adeimantos again ? Instead of this, he addresses his persuasions 
to the Persian leaders. His stratagem was successful : but the 
accounts given of it are inconsistent, ^schylus, a contemporary 
poet, represents him as sending his messenger not to the Per- 
sian leaders, but to Xerxes himself, and speaks of the king as 
charging his generals on their lives to see that not one of the 
enemy escaped them. The poet's statement is certainly in this 
instance more probable than that of the historian, and may be 
accepted as substantially correct. 



150 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



I 



^ 



:. with the western wing of their fleet inclining in 
towards Salamis^ while they who were placed at 
Keos and Kynosoura also put to sea and filled the 
whole gulf as far as Mounychia with their ships, 
that so it might not be possible for the Greeks to 
fly, and that, being caught in Salamis, they might 
pay the penalty for all the mischief done at 
Artemision. And the men were placed in Psyt- 
taleia because it lay straight in the way of the 
battle, and the men and ships would be carried 
thither by the stream ; and so they would be able 
to take the ships and to slay the men. That night 
they never slept, but made ready for the fight in 
silence, that the enemy might not hear them. 
77 Now I venture not to say that oracles are un- 
true, nor, after looking at such matters, do I 
wish to upset them when they speak plainly as 
Bakis speaks in this one : 

^ When men shall span with ships the sacred 
shore of Artemis who wears the golden sword, and 
Kynosoura on the sea, 

^ After they have sacked beautiful Athens in 
foolish daring, 

^Then divine Justice shall destroy strong- 
Pride, the son of Wantonness, 

' As he rages in his fury, thinking to bend all 
things to his will. 

' For brass shall clash with brass, and Ares 
shall tinge the sea with blood. 



THE TIDINGS OF ARISTEIDES. 151 

^ Then the son of Kronos of the broad brow, \ 
and mighty Nike shall bring to Hellas the day of 
her freedom.' 

Against such plain words I dare not speak my- 
self, nor can I listen to those who do. 

All this time there was a fierce strife of words 78 
among the generals in Salamis, for they knew 
not that the barbarians were encircling them with 
their ships, but fancied that they were still 
arranged as they had seen them in the evening. 
But while they were still talking, there crossed 79 
over from Aigina Aristeides the son of Lysi- 
inachos, an Athenian who had been banished by 
the people, and whom I believe to have been one 
of the best and most upright men in Athens, hav- 
ing had good knowledge of his life. This man 
came to the council and called out Themistokles, 
who was no friend to him but altogether his 
enemy. But, in the greatness of the present 
sorrow, he put all those things out of mind, be- 
cause he wished to speak with him and because 
he had heard that the Peloponnesians wished to 
take the ships away to the Isthmus. And when 
he saw him, he said, ' We may fight out our 
quarrel hereafter : ^ let us strive now who can do 

' Herodotus seems to know nothing of the fact (if it be a fact) 
stated by Plutarch, that the ostracism of Aristeides and other 
exiles had been revoked before the fight at Salamis, at the 
urgent desire of Themistokles himself. 



152 TALE OF THE GKEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

viii. most good to his country. It matters not now 
whether much be said or little about the sailing 
away from Salamis to the Isthmus. I have seen 
with my own eyes and know that even if the 
Corinthians and Eurybiades himself should wish 
to flee^ they cannot do so now, for the enemy are 
round us in a circle. Gro in and tell them so.' 

80 And Themistokles said, ^ Thy words and thy 
tidings are both good, for thou sayest that thou 
hast seen that which I most wished should hap- 
pen. What the Medes have done, they have done 
through me, for it was but right, w^hen the Greeks 
would not fight willingly, that they should be 
made to do so against their will. But as thou 
hast brought this good news, bear them in thy- 
self ; for if I say this, they will think my words 
false, and will not believe that the barbarians 
are so doing. Tell them then thyself how it is. 
If they believe, it is well ; if not, it will make 
no difference to us, for they cannot escape if, as 

81 thou sayest, we are surrounded.' So Aristeides 
went in, and told them, adding that he had 
scarcely been able himself to escape the ships 
which were surrounding the island. But again 
there was yet more strife, for the more part of 
the leaders would not believe his tidings, until 
there came a Tenian trireme which had deserted 
the fleet of Xerxes, and brought them the whole 
truth. In return for this, the Tenians had their 



THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 153 

name engraven on the tripod at Delphi among vi 
the names of those who helped to destroy the bar- 
barian. This ship, with the Lemnian vessel which 
had forsaken the Persians at Artemision, made 
up the fleet of the Greeks to two hundred and 
eighty ships. 

Then at last the Greeks believed and made 83 ; 
ready for battle. And as the day was dawning, 
Themistokles cheered them on for the fight^ put- 
ting everything in the fairest light to stir up men 
who were downhearted ; and, bidding them be 
strong and of good courage, he told them to go 
on board their ships. And as they were embark- 
ing, the trireme came from Aigina which had been 
sent to fetch the children of Aiakos. Then the 
Greeks put out to sea with all their ships, and 
immediately the barbarians came forward to meet 84 
them. But while the other Greeks for some 
time backed water and even touched ground, an 
Athenian named Ameinias ran his ship into the 
enemy, and as it was thus entangled and could 
not get free, the rest came up to help him, and 
so began the battle. The Aiginetans say, how- 
ever, that the battle was commenced by the 
trireme which went to bring the children of 
Aiakos ; and the tale is also told that a form as 
of a woman was seen, which cried out in a voice 
heard by all the army of Greeks, ^ Good men, 
how long will ye back water?' 



154 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



85 Fronting the Athenians were placed the Phoe- 
nicians^ who had the wing towards Eleusis and 
the west ; and the lonians, towards the east and 
the Peiraieus, faced the Lacedaemonians. Few of 
them, however, hung back in the battle, as The- 
mistokles had sought to make them. Many of 
them, indeed, took some ships of the Greeks ; but 
I will give the names of two Samians,Theomestor 
and Phylakos, of whom the former was made 
tyrant of Samos by the Persians, and the other 
received much land and was written down among 
the benefactors of the king. 

86 Most of the Persian ships were lost in Salamis, 
some being destroyed by the Athenians, others 
by the Aiginetans. It could hardly have hap- 
pened otherwise, since the Greeks fought in good 
order, while their enemies fell out of their ranks 
and did nothing wisely. Yet they were alto- 
gether braver here than they were in Euboia, 
through fear and dread of Xerxes, for each man 
thought that the eye of the king was resting upon 
him. But how each fought on either side, we 
know nothing as certain, except in the case of 
Artemisia, whose ship was chased by an Athenian 
vessel. Before her w^ere only ships of her own 
side ; and as the enemy was close upon her, she 
ran into a Kalyndian ship in which was their 
king Damasithymos. Whether she did so pur- 
posely because there had been any quarrel be- 



THE RUIN OF THE PEESIAN FLEET. 155 

tween them, or whether the Kalyndians fell foul v 
of her by chance, it is hard to say ; but by this 
deed she profited in two ways. The trierarch of 
the Athenian ship, on seeing her run into one of 
the enemy's vessels, thought that her ship was a 
Greek one or else was deserting from the Per- 
sians, and so turned away to chase the others. And, 88 
besides this, she won yet greater praise and glory 
from Xerxes who saw the deed with his own eyes, 
for some one said to him, ^Dost thou see, 
king, how bravely Artemisia fights, and that she 
has sunk a ship of the enemy ? ' But he doubted 
whether it really was Artemisia who had done 
this ; and when they said that they knew her ship 
from the sign which it carried, Xerxes answered, 
' My men are women, and the women men.' 

In this struggle Ariabignes the brother of 89 
Xerxes fell, and many great men of the Persians 
and the Medes ; and some also of the Grreeks were 
slain, but not many, — for these, not being crushed 
together in the fight, and knowing how to swim, 
escaped to Salamis. But the barbarians could not 
swim ; and when the first ships turned to flee, then 
there followed a terrible destruction, for those 
which were drawn up behind pressed forward to 
reach the front and do something for the king, 
and so got entangled with the vessels which were 
hurrying away. In this uproar some Phoenicians 90 
who had lost their ships came to the king and 



156 TALE OF THE GEE AT PERSIAN WAR. 



n 



11. charged the lonians with having destroyed their 
ships and betrayed them. But while they were 
thus speaking, a Samothrakian vessel ran into a 
ship fronci Athens and sank it, while one from 
Aigina ran into the Samothrakian ship. Then 
these Samothrakians with the javelins drove the 
men of the conquering ship from the deck into 
the sea. and took their vessel ; and this deed saved 
the lonians. For Xerxes, on seeing it, turned to 
the Phoenicians in a rage, and commanded their 
heads to be struck off, that they might not lay 
their own cowardice to the charge of braver men. 
91 So the barbarians fled ; and as they sailed towards 
Phaleron, the Aiginetans met them boldly in the 
strait and destroyed those ships wliich made their 
escape from the Athenians in the battle. But 

93 all who could, hastened to Phaleron and joined 
the land army. In this fight the Aiginetans and 
Athenians won the greatest glory, and among the 
men who were most honoured were Polykritos of 
Aigina and the Athenian Ameinias who chased 
Artemisia. Had this man known whom he was 
pursuing, he would never have stopped until he 
had taken her or been taken himself; for there 
was a prize of ten thousand drachmas to the man 
who should take her alive, and all the Athenians 
were zealous against her, being vexed that a 

94 woman should come against Athens. But Adei- 
mantos the Corinthian, as the Athenians say, fled 



CONDUCT OF THE COKINTHIANS. 157 

at the beginning of the fight in great terror ; and vm. 
the rest of the Corinthians, seeing their leader 
hurrying away, made haste to follow him. But 
while they were opposite to the temple of Athene 
Skiras, a boat which no one was known to have 
sent^ met them, and the men in it cried out, ' So, 
Adeimantos, thou hast basely forsaken the Greeks, 
who are now conquering their enemies as much 
as they had ever hoped to do.' But Adeimantos 
believed them not, until they said that they would 
go back with him and consent to die if their words 
were not true. Then they turned their ships 
about and joined the Athenians when the battle 
was ended. This is the Athenian tale ; but the 
Corinthians maintain that they were amongst the 
foremost in the battle ; and the rest of the Greeks 
confirm their words. 

In the uproar of the fight, when the Persians 95 
began to fly, Aristeides the Athenian, who has been 
already named, landed a large number of hoplites 
on the island of Psyttaleia, and slew every one of 
the Persians who were upon it. So the battle was 96 

* r})v oijT€ irifxy^avra (paurjuai oifdeva. Mr. Rawlinson asserts 
that this was a ' phantom ship : ' Mr. Grote's words (History of 
Greece, vol. v. p. 197) do not imply a similar belief. Mr. Eawlin- 
son's adopted translation appears drawn up to suit his supposition ; 
for the words, ' a very strange apparition,' can hardly be taken 
to translate Ociri irofiir^ : nor would the expression 6€7ov elvai rh 
irpijyfjLa necessarily mean * that there was something beyond 
nature in the matter.' Herodotus, vol. iv. p. 339. 



158 TALE OF THE GHEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

r. ended, and the Greeks drew up all the disabled 
ships which were there, on the shore of Salamis, 
and made ready for another fight, thinking that 
the king would bring up against them the ships 
that still remained to him. But the south-west 
wind carried many of the wrecks towards the 
shore of Attica which is called Kolias, and so ful- 
filled the oracle of Bakis and Mousaios and also 
the saying of an Athenian soothsayer many years 
before, that the women of Kolias should bake their 
bread with oars. This saying no one had under- 
stood, but it came to pass now on the flight of 
the king. 

97 When Xerxes knew all that had happened, he 
dreaded lest the lonians should put it into the 
minds of the Grreeks to go and loose the bridges 
at the Hellespont, or should sail away and do it 
themselves, leaving him to perish with all his 
army in Europe. But while he designed to fly, 
he wished to keep it secret from his own people 
as well as from the enemy, and sought to carry 
a mole from the mainland to Salamis, and tied 
Phoenician merchant-ships together to serve in- 
stead of a bridge and wall. All who saw him 
thus making ready for another fight thought that 
he was altogether bent on remaining to carry on 
the war. But Mardonios saw clearly what he 
was minded to do, for he knew the king's thoughts 
well. And while he was thus doing, he sent a mes- 



MARDONIOS OFFEIiS TO CONQUER THE GREEKS. 159 

senger home to tell the Persians of all his misery, vi 
These messengers go quicker than any other 98 
mortals. At the end of each day's journey stand 
a man and a horse ready to carry on the message ; 
and neither snow nor rain, heat nor darkness, 
hinders them from doing their task as swiftly as 
possible. Thus the first man gives the message 
to the second, and the second to the third, until 
they reach the end, just as in the Feast of Torches 
which the Grreeks keep in honour of Hephaistos. 
Now the first message which reached Sousa, to say 99 
that Xerxes had taken Athens, so delighted the 
Persians that they covered the roads with myrtle- 
branches and burnt incense and made merry with 
burnt offerings and feasting ; but the second 
message so dismayed them that all rent their 
clothes and filled the air with their cries as they 
laid the blame upon Mardonios, not so much be- 
cause they were grieved for the loss of the ships 
as because they feared for the life of the king. 
And so the Persians w^ent on mourning until 100 
Xerxes himself came home. But Mardonios, when 
he saw that Xerxes was greatly cast down by the 
issue of the fight and that he purposed to fly from 
Athens, knew that he would himself suffer for 
having persuaded the king to go against the 
Greeks. So he thought it better to run the risk 
and enslave Hellas, or die nobly striving for a 
great end; and he went therefore to the king 



160 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



)wnl 

bersi 



viiT. and said, ^0 king, be not grieved and cast down 
at what has happened; for that which matters 
most to us is a struggle not with wood but with 
men and horses. With these, not one of the men 
who think that they have utterly destroyed thy 
power by sea will dare to face thee ; and they who 
have so dared, have paid the penalty. If, then, 
it seem good to thee, let us march straightway 
against the Peloponnesos. But if not, be of good 
cheer, for it is impossible for the Grreeks to escape 
being made thy slaves and suffering for all the 
evil that they have done. This then is my 
counsel, if thy mind is fixed to go away thyself. 
Make us not, king, a laughing-stock to the 
Grreeks. Our power is not destroyed; we have 
nowhere shown ourselves cowards ; and how are 
we, Persians, the worse, because Phoenicians and 
Egyptians, Cyprians and Kilikians have brought 
disgrace upon themselves? So, then, if thou must 
go, take with thee the greater part of the army ; 
and I promise to make all the Grreeks thy slaves, 
if thou wilt let me choose thirty myriads out of 
all thy host.' 
101 These words brought joy to Xerxes in his 
sorrow ; and he said to Mardonios that he would 
give him his answer after taking counsel with 
others. So, together with the noblest of the 
Persians, he sent also for Artemisia, because she 
alone before this seemed to know what ought to 



MARDONIOS OFFEES TO CONQUER THE GREEKS. 161 

be done. When she came, he put all the others vm. 
out, and then said to her, ^Mardonios presses 
me to stay here and march against the Pelopon- 
nesos, telling me that the Persians and the land 
army are not in fault, and that with them we 
can win the victory. Or, if I go away, he under- 
takes to conquer all Hellas for me, if I leave 
him thirty myriads of men chosen out of my 
army. Now before the sea-fight thy counsel was 
good. Show me, then, in which way I can act 
most wisely now.' And she said, ^0 king, it is 102 
not easy to hit upon the best advice. Still, as 
things have gone, I think it best for thee to go 
away, and leave Mardonios with his thirty my- 
riads to do as he has promised. If he shall ac- 
complish all that he hopes and undertakes to do, 
it becomes thy doing, because thy slaves have 
done it. If things go against him, the harm is 
not great; for, while thou art safe and all thy 
house, the Grreeks will have to do battle many times 
yet for their freedom ; but if Mardonios falls, it 
matters not. The Greeks win no victory by de- 
stroying thy slave ; and thou hast already done 
that for which thou camest, by burning the city 
of the Athenians.' 

With these words he was much pleased, for Arte- 103 
misia happened to speak his own mind; and, indeed, 
if all, both men and women, had counselled him 
to stay, I do not think that he would have done 

M 



162 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

ym. it, — SO great was his fear. Then he praised her 
greatly and sent her with Hermotimos of Pedasa, 
to take his own children who had follow^ed 

107 him, back to Ephesos. After this he called 
Mardonios, and told him to choose out what 
men he pleased, and to do zealously as he 
had promised. And when the night came, the 
captains sailed away from Phaleron at the bid- 
ding of the king, and hastened with all the ships 
as quickly as they could to the Hellespont, there 
to guard the bridges till the king should come. 
As they approached Cape Zoster, they took some 
slender rocks, which here jut out into the sea, to 
be ships, and they fled for a long way ; but at 
last they found out that they were not ships, but 
rocks, and, coming into line again, sailed on in 
good order. 

108 When the day broke, the Grreeks, seeing the 
army where it was before, thought that the ships 
also were at Phaleron, and made ready for battle. 
But when they learnt that all were gone, they 
hastened to go after them, but could not come 
up with them, although they sailed as far as 
Andros. There they took counsel ; and Themis- 
tokles advised that they should immediately follow 
the ships through the islands to the Hellespont, 
and there destroy the bridges. But Eurybiades 
held that this was the worst thing that they could 
do ; for if the Persians should be so cut off and 



THE PEESIAN FLEET SAILS FOR ASIA. 163 

compelled to stay in Europe, they could never yih. 
remain quiet, because, if they did, they could 
neither live there nor get back to their own land 
but all would die of hunger ; and if Xerxes should 
act bravely, he might overrun the cities of Europe 
one by one, and eat up the corn of the Greeks, 
year by year, as it ripened. He thought, how- 
ever, that Xerxes would not remain in Europe, 
now that he had been beaten in the sea-fight; 
and so it would be best to let him fly, and, after 
that, to carry the war into his own land. And 
with him agreed all the leaders of the Pelopon- 
nesians. 

When, therefore, Themistokles saw that he 109 
could not hope to persuade the greater number, 
he turned to the Athenians, who were most an- 
gered at the flight of the Persians and wished to 
sail by themselves to the Hellespont even if no 
one else would go, and said to them : ^ I have 
often seen myself, and I hear that it generally 
happens, that men, who have been conquered, 
burn to bay when hardly pushed, and wipe out 
the old disgrace. Now our own safety, and that 
of Hellas, is a godsend to us, who have driven 
back so huge a swarm of men. Let us not chase 
them as they fly. For these things have been 
Drought about not by us, but by the gods and 
tieroes, who were jealous that Europe and Asia 
should be ruled by one impious and unholy man, 
M 2 



164 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

u. who, treating temples and houses in the same 
way, cast down and burnt the shrines of the gods, 
and, scourging the sea, threw fetters into it. 
Thus, then, have we prospered ; and it is best for 
us to stay in Hellas and look to ourselves and 
our households. Let everyone rebuild his house, 
and work hard to till and sow his ground, when 
we have clean driven the barbarian out; and 
when the spring comes, we can sail for the Hel- 
lespont and Ionia.' This he said to leave himself 
a loophole with the Persians, if (as came about 
afterwards) he should suffer any wrong at the 
hands of the Athenians. 

110 This judgment, then, they followed, for they 
believed him with all readiness, because to his 
old repute for wisdom he had added counsels 
which had all prospered. And as soon as they 
had agreed to do this, he sent in a boat some 
men, whom he could trust for keeping silence 
under any tortures, with a message to the king. 
Among these again was Sikinnos, the teacher of 
his children, who, on reaching Attica, went to 
Xerxes while the rest remained in the boat, and 
said : ' Themistokles, the leader of the Athenians, 
and the best and wisest of all the Grreeks, has 
sent me to say that, out of good-will to thee, he 
has held back the allies from chasing thy ships 
and breaking up the bridges at the Hellespont : 



II 



THE SECOND MESSAGE OF SIKINNOS. 165 

SO go thy way in peace.' After which, Sikinnos vn 
and his men sailed away again. ^ 

But the Grreeks^ having given up the thought ill 
of sailing to the Hellespont^ remained at Andros 

* If the first message of Sikinnos may be accepted as a fact, 
the second, as related to ns, is incredible. Themistokles, it is 
said, sought by means of it to provide for himself a refuge in the 
time of trouble, which even then he anticipated. This, if it be 
a fact, is one of the most astonishing in history. It is perhaps 
beyond our pov^er to realise the idea of such treachery: but 
some notion of it may be formed if we should suppose that when 
Nelson before the fight at Trafalgar warned every man that 
England looked to him to do his duty, he had already done his 
best to secure the future goodwill of the enemies whom he was 
advancing to encounter. There were, however, other versions 
which, far from agreeing with the story of Herodotus, spoke of 
Themistokles as terrifying Xerxes by a warning that he might 
be intercepted on the road. It is quite possible that he may 
have sent such a message as this ; and therefore Thirlwall 
justly rejects the double meaning which is alleged to lie in the 
message, on the ground 'that such a conjecture might very 
naturally be formed after the event, but would scarcely have 
been thought probable before it.' {History of Greece^ ii. 314.) 
But the message, like many other incidents in the narrative of 
Herodotus, is quite superfluous. Xerxes, it is said, had already 
made up his mind to return home at once ; and the story implies 
an amount of credulity on his part which the most credulous of 
fools would scarcely exhibit. His compliance with the first 
message had brought about the destruction of his fleet : was it 
possible that he could fail to regard the second as intended to 
accomplish his own ? If he received the flrst message, he must 
have looked on Themistokles as a liar determined to compass 
his death by fair means or foul. 



166 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VIII. and besieged it. For Themistokles had gone to 
the Andrians first of all the islanders and asked 
them for money, telling them that the Athenians 
were come with two gods named Persuasion and 
Need, and therefore they must give. But they 
answered that Athens was indeed a great city and 
had man}?- excellent gods, but the Andrians were 
poor and weak, and that two worthless gods, 
named Poverty and Helplessness, would never 
leave their island, and so they could give nothing 
so long as these gods stuck close to them, since 
the power of the Athenians could not be greater 
than their own want of means. Hereupon the 

112 Greeks besieged them, while Themistokles sent 
the same messengers to the other islands, with 
threatening words, telling them that, if they re- 
fused to give, he would bring the army of the 
Greeks upon them and destroy their cities. In 
this way he got much money from the men of 
Karystos and of Pares, who, hearing of the siege 
of Andros and that Themistokles had more weight 
than the other generals, gave through fear. Per- 
haps also some other islands gave, but it is not 
certain. Yet the Karystians were not better off 
because they gave, although the Parians by their 
gift kept away the fleet of the Greeks ; and The- 
mistokles gained much money from the islanders 
without the knowledge of the other leaders. 

113 After remaining a few days longer, Xerxes 



MARDONIOS MAKES UP HIS ARMY. 167 

marched with all his army into Boiotia ; for Mar- v 
donios wished to conduct the king on his journey, 
and it was now no fit time for fighting. So he 
thought to spend the winter in Thessaly, and, 
when the spring came, to go against the Pelopon- 
nesos. Then, in Thessaly, Mardonios chose out 
the men whom he wanted; and he took, first, 
the Persians who are called Immortals (except 
their leader Hydarnes, who would not leave the 
king), and after these the men who wore breast- 
plates, with the thousand horsemen, then the 
Medes and Sakai, Baktrians and Indians, both 
footmen and horsemen. Of these he took all, but 
from the other nations he picked out a few, either 
for stature or for their courage. But the Persians 
were the largest nation that he chose, men who 
wore chains and bracelets, and next to them the 
Medes, who were weaker than the Persians in 
strength only ; and thus with the horsemen he 
made up his thirty myriads. 

While Mardonios was thus choosing out his l^^ 
men and Xerxes lingered in Thessaly, there came 
an oracle from Delphi to the Lacedaemonians, 
bidding them demand recompense from Xerxes 
for the slaughter of Leonidas, and take what he 
should give them. So they sent a herald forth- 
with, who hastened into Thessaly and coming to 
Xerxes, said, ' king of the Medes, the Lacedse- ' 
monians with the children of Herakles who live 



168 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



I 



vin. at Sparta, demand recompense for murder, because 
^l| I thou hast slain their king while he was defending 

Hellas.' Then the king laughed, and after some 
time pointed to Mardonios who chanced to be 
standing near, and said, ' Well, then, my friend 
Mardonios shall give to you such recompense as 
may be fit.' And with this promise the herald 
went away. 
115 So Xerxes left Mardonios in Thessaly, and 
going on with all speed to the Hellespont reached 
the place of crossing in five-and-forty days, with 
little of his army left. All along their road they 
had seized and eaten the corn of the men through 
whose land they chanced to be passing ; and if 
they found none, they gathered grass to eat, and 
stripped off the leaves and bark of trees, and left 
nothing in their fierce hunger ; and then came 
sickness and pestilence which wasted the army. 
Those who were sick Xerxes left behind, charging 
the men of each city to take care of them and 
to feed them, in Thessaly, Paionia, and Macedonia. 
Here also he had left the sacred chariot of Zeus 
as he went into Hellas, but on his return he could 
not get it again. The Paionians had given it to 
the Thracians, and when Xerxes asked for it, 
they told him that it had been stolen by the men 
who live by the fountains of the river Strymon. 
Here also there was a chieftain of the Bisaltai in 
the land of Kreston, who had refused to follow 



THE ELiaHT OF XEEXES. 169 

Xer:Xes and gone away to the mountain of Eho- vn 
dope, charging his sons not to march with him 
into Hellas. But they heeded not his words, or 
perhaps wished to see the fighting ; and when all 
six returned home safe and sound, their father 
put out their eyes, and so they were rewarded. 

When, from Thrace, the Persians reached the 117 
place of passage, they were ferried as quickly as 
possible across the Hellespont in ships to Abydos, 
for they found the bridges unloosed by a storm. 
There they halted, and, finding more food than 
anywhere on their road, filled themselves as they 
could, and by reason of this and the change of 
water many of those who remained died. The 
rest reached Sardes with the king. 

There is, however, another tale told, that in his 118 
flight from Athens Xerxes went no further by land 
than to Eion which is on the Strymon, and there 
left Hydarnes to guide the army to the Helles- 
pont, while he himself went on board a Phoenician 
ship and sailed to Asia. On the way they were 
caught by the Strymonian wind, which raised a 
heavy sea and made the ship take in much water. 
Then, as the deck was crowded with Persians who 
were with him, the king was greatly dismayed, 
and prayed the pilot to tell him if there was any 
hope of safety ; and the pilot said, ' There is none, 
unless we can ease the ship of the crowd within 
it.' Then Xerxes, turning to the Persians, said, 



170 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



^ 



in. ^Now, Persians, show that ye care for the king, 
for my life depends on you ; ' and they, on hearing 
this, did obeisance and leaped into the sea, and the i 
ship so lightened reached Asia in safety. As soun as ■ 
they landed, Xerxes gave the pilot a golden crown 
for saving the life of the king, and then cut oflf 

119 his head for losing the lives of his men. This is 
the tale, but I do not believe it ; for, even if the 
pilot had so spoken to Xerxes, not one in ten 
thousand will gainsay me, that the king would 
not have sent men who were Persians, and the 
noblest of the Persians, down from the deck into 
the body of the ship, and cast out into the sea a 
number of Phoenician sailors equal to that of the 

120 Persians. There is also yet this other proof that 
he went all the way by land, for when he reached 
Abdera he made a treaty of friendship with the 
people and gave them a golden dagger and 
turban ; and, as the men of Abdera say, although 
I do not believe them, he there loosed his girdle 
for the first time since he left Athens, as thinking 
himself at last in safety. 



171 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



THE GEEATI^ESS OF THEMISTOKLES AND THE ATHENIANS. — 
MAEDONIOS AT ATHENS. — THE EEAST OF ATTAGINOS. 



Street and temple — scathed and shattered 

All Athene's city lies ; 
From its ruins, thick and choking 

Clouds of smoke and ashes rise : 
None are there to mourn the ravage, 

Gods and men have passed away : 
Through the shrines of blessed heroes 

Prowl at will the beasts of prey. 



When the Greeks found that they could not take Herodotus 

•^ ^ VIII. 121 

Andros, they went to Karystos and having wasted 
the land returned to Salamis, and put aside the 
first-fruits for the gods, among which were three 
Phoenician triremes. Of these, one was dedicated 
at the Isthmus and remained to my time, the 
second at Sounion, the third to Aias ^ at Salamis 
itself. After this they shared the spoils and sent 
the first-fruits to Delphi. From these there was 
made the figure of a man (twelve cubits in height) 
holding in his hand the beak of a ship, which 
* Ajax. 



172 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



^ 



n. stands close to the golden statue of Alexander, 

122 the Macedonian. When the)^ sent these spoils to 
Delphi, they asked the god in common if the first- 
fruits given to him were enough ; and the answer 
was that he had enough from the other Grreeks, 
but that the Aiginetans must pay that which was 
due for the victory at Salamis. So they dedicated 
golden stars which stand by the brazen loom near 
the mixing-bowl of Croesus. 

123 After the sharing of the spoil, the Grreeks sailed 
to the Isthmus to give the prize for bravery to the 
man who had done best in the war. So when the 
generals placed on the altar of Poseidon the votes 
by which they marked the first and the second 
best men of all, it was found that each general 
had given the first place to himself, but that 
almost all had given the second to Themistokles, 
who was thus shown to be by far the greatest. 

124 This, however, the Greeks would not approve, and 
sailed away each to his own land without giving 
judgment; but none the less was the name of 
Themistokles spread abroad through all Hellas for 
his wisdom. And when soon after this, he went 
to Lacedsemon, the people received him gladly 
and honoured him greatly, giving him a wreath 
of olives for his wisdom and cleverness, and the 
finest chariot in Sparta. And three hundred 
chosen Spartans who were called the Horsemen 
led him back as far as the land of Teo^ea ; and he 



THE aLOEY OF THEMISTOKLES. 173 

is the first man whom the Spartans, as it would vin. 
seem^ ever escorted on his road. But when he 125 
reached Athens, Timodemos of Aphidna, who was 
his enemy, began to chide him vehemently, telling 
him that the Lacedaemonians had honoured him 
not for his own sake but because he was an Athe- 
nian. When Timodemos had ended his words, 
Themistokles said, ' Well, if I had been a man of 
Belbina I should not have been so honoured by 
the Spartans ; but neither wouldst thou have been 
honoured even though a citizen of Athens.' 

Now Artabazos, the son of Pharnakes, a man 126 
of note among the Persians, had guided the king 
as far as the Hellespont, with six myriads of the 
men whom Mardonios chose out of the army. 
And when he reached Pallene on his way back 
(as Mardonios was spending the winter in Thes- 
saly and did not yet need him), Artabazos deter- 
mined, now that he was near them, to attack the 
men of Potidaia, who, after the flight of the king 
and of his ships from Salamis, had openly revolted 
against him, as also had all the others who dwelt 
in Pallene. So he besieged Potidaia and also 127 
Olynthos. This last place he took, and leading 
all the men out to the lake slew them there, and 
gave the city to Kritoboulos of Torone and the 
Chalkidians. And while he urged on the siege of 128 
Potidaia, Timoxenos, the leader of the Skionaians, 
agreed to betray the place to him ; and whenever 



174 



TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 



% 



II. he wished to write to Artabazos or Artabazos to 
him, they rolled the letter round an arrow and 
shot it into a certain place on which they had 
fixed. At last the trick was found out, for Arta- 
bazos, missing his mark one day, hit the shoulder 
of a Potidaian, round whom a crowd gathered, and 
finding a letter wrapped round the arrow, carried it 
to the generals. But they did not punish Timo- 
xenos for his treachery, that the men of Skione 
might not be held traitors for all time to come. 

129 When the siege had lasted three months, there 
was a great ebbing of the sea for a long time, 
and the barbarians, seeing that the water was quite 
shallow, crossed over to Pallene. But when nearly 
half of them had passed over, the sea flowed in 
again with a great wall of w^ater, and those who 
could not swim were drowned, while they who 
could swim were slain by the Potidaians who came 
out in boats to kill them. This ebbing and return 
of the sea, the Potidaians rightly say, w^as caused 
by the Persians who were drov/ned, because they 
profaned the temple of Poseidon and the shrine 
which stands before the city. Those who escaped 
were led back by Artabazos into Thessaly. 

130 But most of the ships which still remained to 
Xerxes, after they had ferried the king and his 
army across to Abydos, passed the w^inter at Kyme, 
and, when the spring came, sailed over to Samos, 
where some of them had wintered. But they 



THE MEETINa OF THE GREEKS AT Aid IN A. 175 

never ventured to go farther westward, nor was m 
there anything to make them ; but they remained 
at Samos with three hundred ships, including 
those of the lonians, to prevent the lonians from 
revolting. The Greeks, they thought, would be 
content to guard their own land, because they had 
not chased them after the fight at Salamis. On 
the sea, then, they were much cast down ; but on 
land they thought that Mardonios was sure to win 
the battle. So, while thej" remained in Samos, 
they tried to see if they could in any way harm 
the enemy, and at the same time sought eagerly 
to learn how things might go with Mardonios. 

In the spring, the ships of the Greeks met 131 
at Aigina, under the admiral Leotychides, of the 
house of Prokles, the child of Herakles ; and the 
leader of the Athenians was Xanthippos. the son 
of Ariphron. Soon there came messengers from 132 
Ionia, who had been to Sparta to ask them to de- 
liver the lonians from slavery, and now came with 
the same prayer to Aigina. With much difficulty 
they prevailed with them to go as far as Delos. 
Beyond this the Greeks knew nothing of the land, 
and fancied that every place was full of their 
enemies, so that to sail on to Samos seemed to 
them as great a thing as to sail to the Pillars of 
Herakles. Thus the barbarians ventured not to 
sail farther west than Samos, and the Greeks 
dreaded to sail farther east than Delos ; and that 



176 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

VIII. which lay beyond was a land of terrors for 
both. 

133 When Mardonios was setting out from Thessaly, 
he sent a man named Mus to ask the will of all the 
gods whose oracles he might be able to visit. Why 
he did this is not clear^ but in all likelihood it was 
only to learn what he ought to do in his own 

134 matters. So Mus went to Lebadeia to consult 
Trophonios^ to Abai of the Phokians, and to the 

135 Ismenian Apollo at Thebes. After this he went 
to the Ptoan temple near Akraiphia on the banks 
of the lake Kopais. Into this temple three citizens 
followed him to write down the answer, whatever 
it might be. But the seer spoke in a barbarous 
tongue^ and the Thebans marvelled to hear such 
sounds instead of their own language, while Mus 
wrote down the words, telling them that the 
prophet was using the speech of the Karians, 

136 and so went away to Thessaly. On reading the 
answers Mardonios sent to Athens as a herald 
Alexander, the son of Amyntas the Macedonian, 
not only because there was a bond between him 
and the Persians (for his sister was married to a 
Persian named Boubares),but because he had been 
a friend and benefactor to the Athenians ; for so he 
thought that he would best gain over that great 
and strong people, who, as he supposed, had chiefly 
brought about all the evils which the king had 
suffered by sea. With these on his side he thought 



MARDONIOS SENDS A MESSAGE TO ATHENS. 177 

truly that he would be master of the sea, and vi 
on land he fancied that he was much stronger 
already ; and in all likelihood also the oracles 
may have bidden him to gain over the Athenians 
to be his friends. 

So Alexander came to Athens and said, ^ Men 140 
of Athens, thus saith Mardonios, There has come 
to me a message from the king, saying, " I forgive 
to the Athenians all the trespasses that they have 
committed against me ; give them back therefore 
their own land, and let them further take any 
other land which they may choose, and let them 
be free ; and, if they agree to these words, build 
up for them all the temples that I have burnt." 
Now therefore I must do with all my might as 
the king commands, unless ye hinder me your- 
selves. And to you I say, why do ye thus madly 
make war against the king? Ye cannot win the 
victory, neither can ye hold out for ever. Ye 
saw the great host of Xerxes and their brave 
deeds ; ye know the might which I have here now, 
and even if ye be stronger and can conquer me 
(which, if ye are wise, ye cannot think to do), 
there will come soon another host far greater than 
mine. Set not up yourselves then as equal to 
the king, and so lose your land and imperil your 
own lives ; but make peace, for now can ye best 
do so. Be free, making a covenant with us with- 
out craft or treachery. This, men of Athens, is 

N 



178 TALE OF THE GEE AT PERSIAN WAR. 

n. the message which I have brought from Mar- 
donios. - Of m)^ own good-will to you I say 
nothing : ye knew it well long ago. But I pray 
you to yield to Mardonios, for I see that ye 
cannot make war against the king for ever. If I 
had not seen this, I would never have brought 
such a message to you. The power of the king 
is beyond that of mortal men, and his hand 
reaches far. Unless then ye agree now^ while 
they hold out to you great and good things, I am 
full of fear for you, because ye lie in the very 
path of the war, and with your country as a battle- 
ground for both sides ye must all perish. Yield, 
then, for the king does you a great honour by 
saying that to you alone of all the Grreeks will he 
forgive their trespasses.' 

141 But the Lacedaemonians had heard that Alexan- 
der had come to make the Athenians yield to the 
barbarian, and were greatly afraid when they 
called to mind the oracles which said that they 
and all the Dorians should be driven out of the 
Peloponnesos by the Athenians and the Medes. 
So they too sent messengers who were heard at 
the same time with Alexander, for the Athenians 
had long put off to hear him, feeling sure that the 
Lacedaemonians would send a messenger as soon 

142 as they heard of the coming of Alexander. So, 
when the Macedonian had finished speaking, 
the messengers from Sparta rose and said, ^ The 



THE COUNTER-EMBASSY OF THE SPARTANS. 179 

Lacedaemonians have sent us to pray you not to vi 
listen to the barbarian or do otherwise than as ye 
have done. For this would not be just or seemly 
in any of the Greeks, least of all in you ; and for 
these reasons. Ye brought this war upon us at 
no wish of ours ; and this struggle which now 
threatens to spread over all Hellas began from 
your land. Yet more ; it is not to be borne that 
Athenians should help to enslave the Grreeks, 
when ye have always and everywhere striven to 
make men free. But in j our sufferings we suffer 
also, because ye have now lost two harvests and 
have for a long time had no homes. And there- 
fore the Lacedaemonians and their allies promise 
to feed your women and your households as long 
as the war shall last. Let not Alexander then 
prevail with you, by smoothing the words of Mar- 
donios. A tyrant himself, he is likely to work 
with other tyrants ; and ye know that in barba- 
rians there is neither faith nor trust.' 

Then the Athenians made answer to Alexander 143 
and said, ' We know that the power of the Medes 
is much larger than ours, and there is no need 
to cast this in our teeth. But in the struggle 
for freedom we will beat them off with all our 
might. It is useless even for thee to try and 
m.ake us agree with the barbarian, for we will 
never do so. And now tell Mardonios what we 
soy : " As long as the sun shall keep the same path 



180 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IT. in the heaven, we will never make peace with 
Xerxes ; but we will face him, trusting in the 
help of gods and heroes, whom he has insulted by 
burninor their homes and shrines." And never 
come again with such messages for Athenians, nor, 
under cloak of good advice, press them on to do 
abominable things, for we seek not that thou 
shouldest suffer any harm at our hands, when 

1^4 thou art our guest and friend.' Then turning to 
the Spartans, they said, ' It was but doing like 
men that you should dread our making peace 
with the barbarian. But poorly indeed do ye 
seem to know the mind of the Athenians, for not 
all the gold throughout the world, not the richest 
and most beautiful land, could tempt us to take 
the part of the Medes and help to enslave Hellas. 
And even if we were willing so to do, there are 
many things to hinder us, and first and chiefly 
the shrines and dwellings of the gods which have 
been burnt and thrown down. And to take ven- 
geance for this we must fight to the last rather 
than make peace with the man who has done such 
deeds. Yet more, the whole Hellenic race is of 
the same blood and speech with us ; we share in 
common the temples of our gods; we have the 
same sacrifices and the same ways of life ; and 
these the Athenians can never betray. Learn 
then now, if ye did not know it before, that, so 
longr as but one Athenian shall remain, we will 



MARDONIOS MARCHES AGAINST ATHENS. 181 

never make any covenant with Xerxes. For your vn 
good-will to us we thank you^ and that ye so care 
for our troubles as to wish to feed and support our 
households. We are grateful for this, but we will 
struggle on as well as we can, without giving you 
trouble. Hasten then to send out your army with 
all speed, for assuredly the barbarian will soon be 
in our land, when he learns that we will not do 
as he would have us ; and we should hasten to 
meet him in Boiotia before he can advance as far 
as Attica.^ 

On the return of Alexander, Mardonios set out ix. i 
with all speed against Athens, taking with him 
all who lay in his road. And the Thessalians 
repented in nowise of all that they had done 
before. Thorax of Larissa guided Xerxes in his 
flight, and now he openly suffered Mardonios to 
pass into Hellas. And on reaching the Boiotian 2 
land, the Thebans pressed him to stay there, tell- 
ing him that there was no better place to encamp 
in, and that if he remained there he could con- 
quer all Hellas without a battle; for by mere 
strength the Greeks could never win the day, 
even if they should be of the same mind as they 
had been before. ' Send money, then,' they said, 
' to all the chiefs, and so break up their councils ; 
and after that thou wilt easily subdue all who do 
not take thy side.' But Mardonios would in no 3 
way listen to them, for he had a strange longing 



182 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I 

to take Athens, partly because the gods had 
blinded his eyes, and partly because he wished to 
send the news by fire-signals to the king at 
Sardes. So he came into Attic x; but again the 
Athenians were gone, and he heard that most of 
them were in their ships at Salamis. Ten months 
had passed away from the tim.e when Xerxes took 
Athens to the day when Mardonios came and 
found the city empty. 

4 From Athens Mardonios sent a man of the 
Hellespont named Mourychides with the same 
message as that which he had given to Alexander, 
because, although he knew that the Athenians had 
no good-will towards him, he yet thought that they 
would lay aside their madness now that he again 

had their country and city in his power. When 
the message was brought to their council, one 
man alone, named Lykidas, said that the words 
of Mardonios should be set before the people. 
On hearing this they were enraged, and so were 
those who were not of the council ; and, gathering 
round him, they stoned him to death, while they 
sent Mourychides away unhurt. And when the 
Athenian women had heard of the tumult which 
had happened, they urged on one another, and, 
hastening of their own accord to the dwelling of 
Lykidas, stoned his wife and children. 

6 Now the Athenians had remained in Attica as 
long as they thought that an army of the Pelo- 



THE ATHENIANS IlEBUKE THE SPARTANS. 183 

ponnesians would soon come to aid them ; but 
when they put off coming and the enemy was 
said to be in Boiotia, they carried everything 
away, and, crossing over to Salamis, sent mes- 
sengers to rebuke the Lacedaemonians for suffering 
the barbarian to enter Attica without a battle, 
and to remind them how much the Persian had 
offered to them on behalf of the king, and that, 
if they did not at once send aid, the Athenians 
must find out some way of escape for themselves. 
But the Lacedaemonians were keeping a feast in 7 
honour of the youth Hyakinthos whom Phoe- 
bus Apollo loved and slew, and before all things 
they must needs attend to this. Their wall 
at the Isthmus also was now rising high. So 
the messengers of the Athenians, bringing also 
others from the men of Megaraand Plataiai, came 
to the ephors^ and said, ' We have been sent to 
tell you that the king of the Medes offers to give 
us back our country and seeks to have us for his 
friends in peace and war without craft or false- 
hood, and he is ready to give us moreover any 
other land which we ourselves may choose. But 
we feared the Hellenian Zeus, and it seemed to 
us a terrible thing to betray Hellas, and so we 
rejected his words, although the Greeks have 
been unjust and traitors to us, and although we 
knew very well that it was much more to our gain 
^ See Appendix II. on the Spartan Constitution. 



184 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

to make peace with the Persian than war. Yet 
of our own free will we will never yield, and so have 
we shown all honesty in our dealings. But you 
who then so greatly dreaded lest we should make 
a covenant with the barbarian, when ye learnt 
that our mind was firmly set not to betray you, 
and now that your wall across the Isthmus is 
nearly finished, care nothing for the Athenians. 
You swore to march with us to meet the Persian 
in Boiotia ; you have broken your word and suf- 
fered him to enter Attica. The Athenians are 
angry with you, for your deeds have been un- 
seemly ; and they charge you to send back an army 
with us in all haste to receive the barbarian in 
Attica, where the Thriasian plain is the fittest spot 
to fight in, now that we have failed to meet him 
in Boiotia.' 

8 To these words the ephors delayed to answer 
from day to day, until ten days had passed. 
Meanwhile all the Peloponnesians had been work- 
ing zealously on the Isthmian wall; nor can I 
say why on the coming of Alexander they were so 
eager that the Athenians should not join the Modes 
but now cared nothing for it, except that they 
had now built their wall and fancied that they 

9 needed them no more. At last they gave their 
answer, and set out on this wise. On the day 
before the last hearing, Chileos of Tegea, a man 
of great weight in Lacedsemon, heard from 1 



THE MASCH OF. THE SPARTANS. 185 

ephors what the Athenians had said to them, and ix. 
he answered, 'Well, ye ephors, it is just thus. 
If the Athenians leave us and fight with the bar- 
bariau, the Persians have many ways of getting 
into the Peloponnesos in spite of your strong 
Isthmian wall. Listen to them, then, before they 
resolve on doing what may bring mischief to all 
Hellas.' 

This counsel they immediately weighed well, io 
and, without saying anything to the messengers, 
sent out five thousand Spartans while it was yet 
night, with seven helots to each man, under 
Pausanias, whose father Kleombrotos had died 
soon after he led away from the Isthmus the army 
which had been building the wall. So Pausanias 
was sent in the place of his cousin Pleistarchos, 
the son of Leonidas, who was yet a child. 

In the morning the messengers went to the li 
ephors, intending to depart instantly each to his 
own people, and said to them, ' Stay on, Lace- 
daemonians, keep feast and sport, after betraying 
your friends. The Athenians, whom ye have in- 
jured, will make their peace with the Persian as 
best they can ; and when they have done so, they 
must march wherever the barbarian may lead 
them. And then ye will see what the issue must 
be to you.' Then the ephors answered and sware 
to them that the army was already gone, and 
must, as they believed, be now in the sacred 



186 TALE OF THE GJREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

ground of Orestes, on their way to meet the 
strangers. And the Athenians asked them what 
they meant, for they did not know that they spoke 
of the Persians under this name; and, marvelling 
greatly when they learnt the truth, they set out as 
quickly as they could, with five thousand chosen 
men of the Lacedaemonian Perioikoi. 

12 When the Argives learnt that Pausanias with 
his men had left Sparta, they sent the best runner ' 
whom they could find to Attica^, because they had 
promised Mardonios to hinder the Spartans from 
going out at all. And the runner came to Mar- 
donios and said, ' The Argives have sent me to 
tell thee that all the young men have set out 
from Lacedaemon, and that the Argives were not < 
able to stop them ; wherefore be wise in thy 
counsels.' And so having spoken, he went liome I 

13 again; but Mardonios, on hearing this, was in no 
way eager to remain in Attica. Up to this time 
he had waited to see what the Athenians would 
do, without hurting or wasting their land, in the 
hope that they would yield. But now he burnt 
Athens, and threw down and utterly destroyed 
every house and temple that had been left stand- 
ing, and so departed from Attica before Pausa- 
nias and his men could reach the Isthmus. And 
he went away because Attica was not a good land 
for horsemen to fight in, and, if he should be 
beaten in the battle, he could only retreat through 



MARDONIOS RETURNS INTO BOIOTIA. 187 

narrow passes which a few men might hold i 
against him. But while he was yet on the road 14 
to Thebes, there came to him. another message 
that a vanguard of one thousand Lacedaemonians 
had reached Megara. Upon this he led his army 
to that city, in the hope of taking these before 
the rest came up ; and his horsemen overran the 
Megarian land. This w^as the furthermost point 
of Europe which the host of the Persians reached; 
for, on learning by another message that the lo 
Greeks were gathered at the Isthmus, they went 
back through Dekeleia, guided by the men 
whom the chiefs of the Boiotians sent to lead 
him, by Sphendaleai, Tanagra, and Skolos, into 
the country of the Thebans. There, although they 
were on his side, he yet ravaged their lands, not 
at all because he hated them, but because he 
could not help it, since he must have some strong 
place for his army to fall back upon if the war 
should not go according to his hopes. And he 
stretched out his army from Erythrai to Hysiai, 
and onwards to the Plataian land, by the banks of 
the river Asopos. However, he did not build the 
wall across all this space, but only for a distance 
of about ten furlongs on each front. 

While the barbarians were labouring on this 
work, Attaginos, tlie son of Phrynon, a Theban, 
called Mardonios, with fifty of the chief men 
among the Persians, to a great banquet which he 



188 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



IX. 16 had made ready in Thebes. The rest of this tale 
I heard from Thersandros, a great man among the 
Orchomenians, who told me that he had been 
invited to this feast with fifty men of the Thebans, 
and that they lay down to meat not separately, 
but one Persian and one Theban together on 
each couch. When the feast was ended, as they 
were drinking wine, the Persian who lay on the 
couch with him asked him in the Greek language 
who he was ; and when he answered that he was 
a man of Orchomenos, the Persian said, ^ Thou 
hast sat at the same table and shared the same 
cup with me, and I wish to leave thee a memorial 
of my foresight, that thou mayest be able by wise 
counsel to provide also for thyself. Thou seest 
the Persians who are with us at this banquet, and 
the army which we left encamped on the river's 
bank. Yet a little while, and of all these but a 
very few shall remain alive.' As the Persian said 
this, he wept bitterly: and Thersandros marvelled 
at him and answered, ' Is it not right that Mar- 
donios should hear this, and the Persians who are 
of weight with him ? ' But the other replied, ' 
friend, that which Heaven is bringing to pass it is 
impossible for man to turn aside ; for none will 
believe though one spake ever so truly. All this 
many of us Persians know well, but yet we follow, 
bound by a strong necessity ; and of all the pains 



THE FEAST OF ATTAGINOS. 189 

which men may suffer, the most hateful and 
wretched is this, to see the evils that are coming 
and yet be unable to overcome them.' This story 
I heard from Thersandros himself, who also added 
that he had told the tale to many others, before 
the battle was fought in Plataiai. 



190 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



CHAPTEK IX. 



THE GATHEPvII^G AT PLA.TAIAI. — MARDONIOS ATOKES FOR 
THE DEATH OP LEONIDAS. — THE STORMING OF THE 
PERSIAN CAMP. — THE FLIGHT AND TRICK OF ARTA- 
BAZOS. 



els oloDvhs &pi(Tros ajuLvvea'dai irepl izd.Tp'qs. 

II. xii. 243. 

Herodotus While Mardonios was encamped in Boiotia, all 

IX. 17. ^ 

the Greeks who took the side of the Modes sent 
men to help him, and with him all marched 
against Athens except the Phokians. These took 
the king's side not of their free will but only 
of necessity, and a thousand of their hoplites 
joined Mardonios a few days after he reached 
Thebes, under Harmokydes, a man of great note 
among the citizens. As soon as they came, 
Mardonios placed them in the plain apart from 
all others ; and immediately all the horsemen of 
the Persians rode up to them, and a rumour went 
through all the camp of the Greeks that the 
Phokians were to be shot down with arrows. 
The same rumour spread through the Phokians, 



THE TKIAL OF THE PHOKIANS. 191 

and Harmokydes, their leader, said, ^ It is clear^ 
Phokians, that the enemy are about to slay us, 
because, as I suppose, we have been slandered by 
the Thessalians. Be strong, then, and of good 
courage, every one of you, for better is it to die 
fighting bravely for our lives than to be butchered 
quietly like dogs ; but let the barbarians at least 
learn this, that they are attacking Grreeks.' So is 
when the horsemen had made a circle round them, 
they rode up fiercely and stretched their bows as 
if they were going to shoot, and one or two shot 
their arrows. And the Phokians faced them, 
being drawn up in one close mass, and the 
horsemen wheeled round and drew off; nor is it 
certain whether they went to slay the Phokians 
at the request of the Thessalians, and then fell 
back on seeing that they were ready to defend 
themselves, or whether they did so merely to try 
their courage. But as soon as the horsemen were 
gone, Mardonios sent a herald to them, saying, 
^ Be of good cheer, men of Phokis ; ye have shown 
yourselves to be brave, and not such as I had been 
told ye were. And now fight ye zealously for the 
king, for, whatever benefits ye may do to us, ye 
shall have more from him and from me.' 

In the meanwhile the Lacedaemonians reached 19 
the Isthmus and encamped there; and when 
the rest of the Peloponnesians who inclined 
to the better side heard this, or saw that the 



192 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

:. Lacedsemonians had set out, they did not choose - 
to be left behind : all therefore marched in one 
body from the Isthmus, when the sacrifices were 
said to be fair, and came to Eleusis, where they 
were joined by the Athenians who had crossed 
over from Salamis. Thence, when they had learnt 
again from the victims that the gods were kind, 
they went on to Erythrai in the Boiotian land ; 
and, hearing that the barbarians were encamped 
on the banks of the Asopos, they drew themselves 
out in array on the slopes of Mount Kithairon. 

20 And when they would not come down into the 
plain, Mardonios sent all his horsemen against 
them, under Masistios, a great man amongst the 
Persians, who rode upon a Nisaian horse with a 
golden bit and brave trappings. So the horse- 
men rode up by their ranks to the Greeks, doing 
them much hurt by their arrows, and called them 

21 women. It chanced that the Megarians were 
placed in that spot which was most open to 
attack, and where the horsemen could approach 
most easily. Thus they were hard pressed and 
sent a messenger to the generals of the Greeks, 
who came to them and said, ' The men of Megara 
cannot by themselves receive the onset of the 
Persians and keep the ground where they were" 
placed at the first ; yet they hold out bravely and 
cheerfully, though they are sorely pressed : but if 
ye send not others to relieve us, we must leave 



I 



THE DEATH OF MASISTIOS. 193 

our ranks.' Bat when Pausanias asked who were ^ 
willing of their own accord to go to this spot and 
take the place of the Megarians, none wo aid go 
until the Athenians undertook to do so ; and there 
went the three hundred chosen men, of whom 
Olympiodoros, the son of Lampon, was the captain. 
These, with the archers, placed themselves in front 22 
of the Grreeks at Erythrai ; and, at last, the horse 
of Masistios received an arrow in its side, and, 
rearing itself upright in its pain, shook Masistios 
from its back. Then the Athenians took his 
horse and killed Masistios as he strove to defend 
himself ; but they did so with difficulty, for he 
wore a corslet of scale armour under a purple 
tunic. Thus they tried in vain to pierce the corslet, 
until at last some one, finding out the reason, 
wounded him in the eye ; and so he died. All 
this was done without the knowledge of his 
horsemen, for they did not see him fall or learn 
what had happened while their retreat was going 
on ; but on halting they found out their loss, and 
with a great cry turned back to recover his body. 
And the Athenians, seeing them coming up not by 23 
companies but in a single mass, called the rest of 
the army to help them ; and while they were 
coming up, a sharp fight went on for the body of 
Masistios. As long as the three hundred stood 
alone, they w^ere beaten and compelled to give up 
the body ; but when the others came up, the 





194 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IX. Persians were again driven back, and, losing the 
body, had many more of their number slain. So 
they fell back about two furlongs, and taking coun- 
sel rode off to Mardonios because they had lost 
24 their leader. Then there was a great mourning 
throughout the army of the Persians, for all 
lamented for Masistios (and Mardonios mourned 
most of all), shaving themselves and their horses 
and their beasts of burden. And there was a 
great cry through all the host, and the sound of 
it went through all Boiotia, as for the death of one 
who, next to Mardonios, was of most note among 
the Persians and with the King.^ 

* Mr. Eawlinson rightly cites this passage among the instances 
of vivid pictorial description to be found throughout the pages 
of Herodotus : at the same time he remarks (Herodotus, vol. i. 
p. 145) that, ' in common with the ancients generally, the his- 
torian for the most part neglects natural scenery.' Volumes 
have been written in our own day on this supposed contrast 
between ancient and modern writers ; and the greater merit of 
the latter in that art which has received the name of * word- 
painting* has been vehemently maintained by Mr. Kuskin, 
himself perhaps the most prominent of all painters in words. 
(Modern Painters, &c. &c.) Yet after all it may be fairly 
doubted whether this art will have any great permanence, and 
still more whether it has at all answered the purpose for which 
it was called into being. Its aim is to give to those who 
have not seen a natural landscape or a painted representation 
of it, a real idea of that scene or that picture. It "is by some 
maintained already, and the opinion will rapidly gain ground, 
that the most elaborate descriptions give nothing more than 
general impressions. The most minute account of such pictures 



ii 



THE GREEKS AT PLATAIAI. 195 

But the Greeks, having withstood the onset of ix. 25 
the horsemen and driven them off, became much 
more bold and cheerful, and putting the dead 
body on a car, they drew it along their ranks ; and 
so wonderful was it for its stature and its beauty, 
that the men left their places and came forward 
to look upon Masistios. After this they deter- 
mined to go down to Plataiai, which seemed to 
them a much better place to encamp in than 
Erythrai and to have more water. To this 
place, then, and to the fountain of Grargaphia, 
they resolved to go, and there place themselves 
in order. So they took up their arms and went 
along the lower slopes of Kithairon to Hysiai 
in the Plataian land, and there drew them- 
selves up by their nations near the fountain 

as the 'Old Temeraire,' the * Slave Ship/ the 'Campagna of 
Kome/ may lead us to create our own pictures to answer that 
description ; but they will no more put us in the position of 
others who have seen those pictures, than the passing touches 
of the ancient poet will enable us altogether to realise the beau- 
ties of the ivy-coloured Kolonos. Yet probably the partial sketch 
of Sophokles will leave on the reader's mind an impression not 
less vivid than that which he may receive from any descriptions 
of the most elaborate word-painting. The enthusiasm with 
which Herodotus speaks of the beautiful climate of Ionia, and 
the description which he gives of the surprise of the Phokians at 
Thermopylai, shows that he felt these outward beauties not less 
than Sophokles himself. In both the absence of more elaborate 
description may be caused as much by a consciousness of its use- 
lessness, as by any want of the powers of appreciation. 

o 2 



196 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

of Grargaphia and the sacred ground of the hero 
Androkrates, along some gently swelling mounds 
and level land. 
26 In drawing up this order there arose a great 
strife of words between the men of Tegea and the 
Athenians, both claiming to have that wing of 
the army which the Lacedaemonians might not 
choose for themselves, and bringing up things 
done lately and long ago in support of their claim. 
And the men of Tegea said, ' In eyery march of 
the Peloponnesians both in old time and in later 
days, the allies have ever given us this place, from 
the time that the children of Herakles sought, 
after the death of Eurystheus, to return into the 
Peloponnesos. Then, with the Achaians and the 
lonians who were then in Peloponnesos, we went 
out to meet them ; and the tale is that Hyllos 
would not suffer the armies to come together in 
battle, but asked for the bravest man among the 
Peloponnesians to come forth and fight with him 
in place of all. So they sware an oath that 
if H^dlos should conquer the champion of the 
Peloponnesians, the children of Herakles should 
return to their fathers' land, but if he should be 
beaten, then they should go away and not seek a 
return to the Peloponnesos for a hundred years. 
Then of his own will came forth Echemos, the son 
of Aeropos our leader and king, and fought with 
Hyllos and slew him. For this deed the Pelopon- 



I 



THE RIVALRY OF THE MEN OF TEGEA. 197 

nesians gave us other great honours, which we 
have still — and this also, that we should lead the 
other wing whenever they went to war. We 
do not stand in your way, then, men of Lacedse- 
mon ; take whichever wing ye may prefer, but 
the other we claim to lead as in the former days. 
Nay, apart from this deed of Echemos, we de- 
serve this post much more than the Athenians; 
for many a sturdy struggle have we had with you, 
men of Lacedaemon, and many also with others ; 
but the Athenians have not deeds such as ours to 
boast of, either in our own time or in the ages 
that are past.' To this the Athenians answered, 27 
'We supposed that we were gathered here to 
fight with the barbarian and not to quarrel be- 
tween ourselves with words. But since the men 
of Tegea think fit to balance their good deeds 
in every generation against ours, we must also 
show why, so long as we behave well, we deserve 
to come before Arkadians. These children of He- 
rakles, whose leader they say that they slew at 
the Isthmus, we alone welcomed when they were 
driven from one nation of the Greeks to another, 
as they fled from the men of Mykenai ; and we 
also put down the pride of Eurystheus, when with 
them we beat in a battle the people who then had 
the Peloponnesos. Yet again, when the men of 
Argos went against Thebes with Polyneikes and 
lay unburied on the ground, we marched against 



19? 



TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



IX. the children of Kadmos, and recovering their 
bodies buried them in Eleusis of our own land. 
And we also did bravely against the daughters of 
the Amazons when long ago they came into Attica 
from the river Thermodon; and in the labours 
at Troy we came behind none. But it is useless 
to go back to these things. They who behaved 
well then may be worthless now ; they who were 
cowards long ago may now be brave. Enough 
then of the former days. For even if we had 
done no other good deed (and we have done 
many, perhaps beyond all the Grreeks), yet, from 
what we did at Marathon, we deserve surely not 
this honour only, but others also, for daring to 
meet the Persians alone and conquering by one 
victory six-and-forty nations. But at such a time 
as this it is not seemly to be quarrelling for a place, 
and so we are ready, men of Lacedaemon, to 
stand where ye may think fit to place us; and 
wherever we are we shall strive to do our duty.' 
28 Then the Lacedaemonians cried out as one man 
that the Athenians deserved to lead the other 
wing more than any Arkadians ; and so the men 
of Tegea were worsted in their claim. 

After this they were drawn out for battle 
thus, — the new-comers along with those who 
had been there from the first. On the right 
wing were ten thousand Lacedaemonians; but 
five thousand of these were Spartans, who were 



THE BATTLE-ARRAY OF THE GREEKS. 199 

guarded by five-and-thirty thousand helots, seven 
to each man. Next to themselves they placed 
the men of Tegea, fifteen hundred heavy-armed 
men, as a reward for their courage and great- 
ness in time past. After these came fifteen 
hundred men of Corinth, close to whom stood 
the three hundred Potidaians who had come from 
Pallene. Then came six hundred Arkadians of 
Orchomenos, and three thousand men of Sikyon ; 
then eight hundred Epidaurians, and one thousand 
men of Troizen, next to whom were two hundred 
from Lepreon, with four hundred from Mykenai 
and Tiryns, and one thousand men from Phlious. 
Next to these stood three hundred from Hermione, 
then six hundred from Eretria and Styria, then 
four hundred Chalkidians and five hundred men of 
Ambrakia. Beyond these were placed eight hun- 
dred from Leukas and Anaktorion, and then two 
hundred Palians from Kephallenia. Next to these 
were drawn out five hundred Aiginetans, and then 
three thousand men of Megara, beyond whom 
were six hundred Plataians ; and beyond all, and 
first on the left wing, stood the Athenians, eight 
thousand men, with Aristeides, the son of Lysima- 
chos, for their leader. 

All these, except the seven who served round 29 
every Spartan, were hoplites, and numbered in all 
thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men. And 
the light-armed were the five-and-thirty thousand 



200 TALE OF TnE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

:. helots belonging to the Spartans, and three for 
each of the other Lacedaemonians and Greeks, 
making together thirty-four thousand five hundred 
men ; so that all the light-armed men in the army 
numbered seven myriads lacking five hundred. 

30 And hoplites and light-armed together made up 
eleven myriads lacking eighteen hundred ; but 
these were filled up l)y the Thespians, who re- 
mained after Thermopylai, and who came without 
heavy arms. So all these were encamped on the 
banks of the river Asopos. 

31 When the barbarians with Mardonios had ended 
their mourning for Masistios, they also hastened 
to the Asopos, on hearing that the Greeks were 
assembled in Plataiai. There, facing the Lace- 
daemonians, Mardonios placed the Persians, who 
being many more in number fronted also the 
men of Tegea ; but he picked out the strongest 
to stand opposite the Lacedaemonians, and the 
weakest he placed against the Tegeatans. This 
he did by the counsel and warning of the Thebans. 
Next to the Persians came the Medes, facing the 
Corinthians and Potidaians with the men of Orcho- 
menos and Sikyon ; after these, the Baktrians in 
front of the Epidaurians, Troizenians, and Leprea- 
tans, and also of the men of Tiryns, Mykenai, and 
Phlious. Next to these stood the Indians, who faced 
the men of Hermione and Eretria, the Styrians 
and Chalkidians. Beyond these came the Sakai 



THE BATTLE-AKEAT OF THE PEKSIANS. 



201 



in front of the Ambrakiots and I.eukadians, the «. 
Paleans and Aiginetans. And opposite to the Athe- 
nians, Plataians, and Megarians, he drew up the 
Boiotians and Lokrians, Melians and Thessahans, 
with the thousand men of Phokis (for not all the 
Phokians had taken the king's side, but some who 
had fled to the heights of Parnassos aided the 
Greeks by coming down from the mountain and 
plundering the army of Mardonios and the Greeks 
' who were with him). And facing the Athenians 
were also drawn up the men of Macedonia and 
the countries which lie near to Thessaly. 

These were the greatest nations in the army of 32 . 
Mardonios, and had the highest name. But with 
these were mixed up men of other nations, Phry- 
gians, Thracians, Mysians, Paionians, and the rest ; 
and of the Ethiopians and Egyptians were those 
who carry daggers and are called Hermotybians 
and Kalasirians,— the only Egyptians who fight. 
These Mardonios took out of the ships while he 
was at Phaleron, for they had not been reckoned 
amongst the footmen of Xerxes. So then the 
barbarians were, as has been said before, thirty 
myriads; but the number of Greeks who were 
with them is not known, for they were never 
counted, but we may suppose that they made up 
five myriads more. 

When all were drawn out by their nations and 33 
in their companies, then on the second day both 



202 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

armies offered sacrifice. The seer of the Grreeks 
was Tisamenos, the son of Antiochos, whom, being 
an Eleian of the lamid tribe, the Lacedaemonians 
had adopted into their own people. For when he 
had gone once on a time to Delphi, the priestess 
said that he should be five times conqueror in the 
greatest struggles ; so he thought that she meant 
the great games, and, giving his mind to these, 
very nearly won the game of five contests against 
Hieronymos of Andros. And when the Lacedae- 
monians found from this that the priestess musi 
have meant the strife not of games but of war 
they sought with a great sum to obtain him for a| 
leader in war together with their kings the child- 
ren of Herakles. But he, seeing their eagerness, 
raised his price, and said that he would only lead 
them if they gave him all the rights of a citizen. 
But the Spartans would not hear of it, and at 
first cared nothing for the words of the priestess. 
But when the great peril of the Persian war 
hung over them, they agreed to do as he had 
asked. Then Tisamenos answered that he would 
not be content now, unless they gave to his brother 
Hegias also all that he had demanded for himself. 

34 And they gave way to him in all, so grievously 
did they need him ; and so Tisamenos became 
their soothsayer, and helped them to win five 
great battles, of which this one in Plataiai was the 

35 first. And when he offered sacrifice, he told them 



THE OMENS BEFORE THE BATTLE. 203 

that the signs were good if they stood in their ] 
own defence, but not if they crossed the river 
and began the battle. 

Mardonios also was eager to begin the fight ; 37 
but neither to him were the omens good if he 
advanced against the enemy. For he also had a 
Greek soothsayer, Hegesistratos, an Eleian of the 
tribe of the Telliadai, whom the Spartans once 
bound and were going to slay, because they 
thought that he had done them great wrong. 
So he knew that he was in peril of his life, and 
resolved to do a daring and marvellous deed to 
escape not only death but horrible tortures be- 
fore death. Somehow or other he got a knife 
and cut off the front part of his foot so as to let 
him draw the rest out from the stock to which it 
was fastened. So he fled from his dungeon by a hole 
which he had made in the wall, and, journeying 
by night and skulking in the woods by day, reached 
Tegea on the third night, although he had been 
sought by all the Lacedaemonians, who had mar- 
velled to see the foot lying on the ground and the 
man himself gone. At this time the men of Tegea 
were not friendly to the Spartans : so when the 
wound was healed, Hegesistratos made himself a 
wooden foot, and showed himself openly as an 
enemy to the Lacedaemonians. However, he did 
not prosper in this enmity to the end ; for they 
caught him at last as he was prophesying in 



204 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IX. 38. Zakynthos, and put him to death. But this was 
long after the fight at Plataiai, where he offered 
sacrifice for Mardonios not only because he hated 
the Lacedsomonians, but because he had been hired 
at a great price. And when the signs would not 
allow him or the Greeks who were with him to 
fight, a Theban named Timagenidas counselled 
Mardonios to guard the passes of Mount Kithairon, 
telling him that more men were daily pouring 
in to help the Grreeks, and that by so doing he 

39 would catch many of them. Eight days had 
passed away since the armies began to face each 
other, when this counsel was given to Mardonios. 
And, as soon as it was night, Mardonios sent his 
horsemen into the passes of Kithairon which lead 
towards Plataiai, and which the Boiotians call the 
Three Heads, but the Athenians name the Oak 
Heads. Nor did he send them in vain ; for they 
caught five hundred beasts carrying corn from 
Peloponnesos for the army, together with the 
men who followed them. On these the Persians 
fell fiercely, and slew all, sparing neither man 
nor beast ; and when they had taken their fill of 
slaughter, they drove away all that remained to 
Mardonios and his army. 

40 After this, yet two days more passed, while 
neither side was willing to commence the battle. 
The barbarians came up indeed to the banks of 
the Asopos, but neither Greeks nor Persians at- 



THE OBSTINACY OF MAKDONIOS. 205 

tempted to cross the river. Still the horsemen of ix. 
Mardonios troubled the Greeks, for the Thebans, 
who were fierce on the king's side, urged them on 
vehemently. So for ten daj^s nothing more hap- 4^ 
pened ; but on the eleventh Mardonios, vexed that 
the Greeks were daily growing stronger in number, 
took counsel with Artabazos, the son of Pharnakes, 
who thought that all the host ought at once to go 
to the wall of the Thebans, where much corn was 
stored up for the men, with food also for all the 
cattle, and there wait quietly. ^We have much 
gold,' he said, ^ both coined and uncoined, and 
also much silver both in money and in drinking 
vessels. Spare none of these, but send them 
about to the Greeks, and chiefly to those who are 
at the head in each city, and they will soon give 
up their freedom without facing the dangers of a 
battle.' And so likewise thought the Thebans. 
But Mardonios was headstrong and would not 
listen, for he thought that his army was altogether 
stronger than the army of the Greeks. ' Let us 
fight,' he answered, ^before our enemies grow 
more in number. As to the omens of Hegesi- 
stratos, let them alone, and seek not to force them ; 
but let us go to meet the enemy as we should do 
in our own land.' 

None dared to speak against these words of 42 
Mardonios, for he it was and not Artabazos whom 
the king had left to be the general of his army. 



206 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

So he sent for the leaders of the companies and 
the captains of the Grreeks who were with him, 
and asked them if they knew of any oracle which 
said that the Persians should be destroyed in' 
Hellas. But all were silent, some because they 
knew no such oracle, others because they were 
afraid to speak. Then said Mardonios, ' Since 
ye either know nothing or dare not tell out what 
ye know, I will tell you myself. There is an 
oracle which says that Persians, coming to Hellas, 
shall plunder the temple at Delphi, and then be 
utterly destroyed. But we are not going against 
this temple, nor shall we attempt to plunder it ; 
and therefore we shall not for this cause be undone. 
Be glad, then, all ye who have good-will towards 
the Persians, for we shall now conquer the 
Grreeks.' And so he bade them all make ready 
for the fight, for that he would begin the battle 
on the next morning as soon as the day should 
44 break. So the council was ended, and the night 
came on, and the guards stood at their posts. 
And when all was quiet through the camp and 
the men were in a deep sleep, then, in the 
late hours of the night, Alexander, the son of 
Amyntas, the general and king of the Mace- 
donians, rode up to the outposts of the Athenians 
and asked to speak with their leaders. So most 
of the watchmen waited there with him, while 
some went to say that there was a man come from 



1 



THE TIDINGS OF ALEXANDER. 207 

the army of the Modes who would tell them ix. 
nothing but sought to come to speech of the 
generals, of whom he spoke by name. Then the 45 
leaders followed the guards to the outposts; 
and when they came near, Alexander said to 
them, ' Men of Athens, I charge you, tell not 
these words of mine to any save Pausanias, lest 
ye destroy me. I should never have spoken them 
but because I greatly care for Hellas. I too am 
a Greek by ancient descent, and I wish not to 
see Hellas enslaved instead of free. Therefore do 
I tell you that the omens are not fair to Mar- 
donios and his army; otherwise he would have 
fought with you long ago. Now, however, he is 
resolved to take no further heed of omens and 
victims, but to begin the battle as soon as the 
day shall dawn, for, as 1 believe, he fears that 
your numbers are daily becoming greater. Where- 
fore be ye ready, and even if Mardonios puts off 
the battle, still tarry on, for he has but little corn 
left. And if the war end as ye would have it, 
then remember to deliver me also, for in my zeal 
for the Greeks I have run this great venture, be- 
cause I wished to show you the purpose of Mar- 
donios, that so he might not take you unawares. 
I am Alexander the Macedonian.' So having 
spoken, he rode back to the army and to his com- 
pany ; and the generals of the Athenians went to 46 
the right wing and told Pausanias what they had 



208 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IX. heard from Alexander. Then Pausanias was afraid 
and said, ' If we must fight as soon as the day 
dawns, theo must ye AtheniaQS face the Persians, 
while we stand in front of the Boiotians and other 
Greeks ; and for this reason. Ye know the Modes 
and their way of fighting, for ye have doDO battle 
with them in Marathon. We have no knowledge 
of them, and are unskilled in their ways. But if 
the Spartans have never fought with the Modes, 
they have often fought with Boiotians and Thes- 
salians. Take up your arms, then, and come to our 
wing, while we change to the left.' Then the 
Athenians answered Pausanias and said, ^Long 
ago, when we saw that you faced the Persians, it 
came into our minds to counsel you to do what 
ye now wish to do, but we were afraid that our 
words might not please you. But as ye have 
thought of these things yourselves, we gladly 
agree and are ready to do as ye would have 

47 us.' So both were pleased ; and the day dawned 
as they were changing their ground. And the 
Boiotians, seeing what was going on, told it to 
Mardonios, who straightway made the Persians 
move to the other side so as again to face the 
Lacedsemonians. But when Pausanias saw by 
this that his purpose was found out, he led the 
Spartans back to the right wing, and Mardonios 

48 placed the Persians again on his left. When all 
stood as they had been drawn up before. Mar- 



MARDONIOS EEYILES THE SPARTANS. 209 

donios sent a herald to the Spartans, who came to 
them and said, ' Lacedaemonians, the people of 
this land tell us that ye are the bravest of all 
men, and marvel that ye never fly from war or 
leave your ranks, but, holding your ground, either 
slay your enemies or are slain yourselves. All 
this, then, is a lie ; for before the battle begins, 
we see you leaving your post and changing 
ground, wishing the Athenians to commence the 
fight, while ye place yourselves in front of our 
slaves. These are not the deeds of brave men. 
Nay, we have been sadly deceived in you. We 
thought that for your great name ye would send 
a herald saying that ye would fight with the Per- 
sians by yourselves ; and not only do ye not say 
this, but yield ground before us. Well, we have 
begun this converse, not you ; and so we will ask 
yet more, what hinders us from fighting in equal 
numbers, you on behalf of the Greeks, because 
ye are held to be the bravest, and we Persians on 
behalf of the barbarians? If the others must 
fight, let them fight afterwards. But if there is 
no need of this, let us finish the strife ; and 
whichever of the two shall conquer, let it be 
held that he conquers with his whole army.' 

So the herald waited for an answer ; but none 49 
was given, and presently he rode away and told 
Mardonios how he had fared. And Mardonios 
was exceedingly glad, and ordered his horsemen 

P 



210 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAE. 

to march against the Greeks ; and they did much 
hurt to their army by shooting their arrows and 
lances against them, while the Greeks could not 
reach them because they fought on horses. And 
the Persians destroyed and filled up the fountain 
of Gargaphia from which all the army of the 
Greeks drew their water. Near this fountain only 
the Lacedsemonians had been placed, while the rest 
of the Greeks were near the river Asopos ; but 
now^ that they were prevented by the horsemen and 
archers from approaching the river, they were 

50 compelled to resort to this fountain. Upon this 
the leaders of the Greeks came to Pausanias on 
the right wing, to take counsel on this matter and 
on many others, for not only had they no water, but 
there were other things more grievous still. Their 
corn had almost failed them, and their servants, 
whom they had sent to the Peloponnesos to bring 
more, were caught by the horsemen of the Persians 

51 and were unable to reach the camp. So the ge- 
nerals resolved that, if the Persians should again 
put off the battle, they would retreat to an island 
ten furlongs away from the fountain of Gargaphia, 
in front of the city of Plataiai. Here the stream 
which comes down in two courses from Kithairon 
runs again into one, and so makes this island, which 
is called Oeroe (as the people of the land say) 
from a daughter of the river Asopos. Thither they 
purposed to go, that they might have plenty of 



THE STOKY OF AMOMPHARETOS. 211 

water and not be so vexed by the horsemen of the 
enemy. So they made ready to depart as soon as 
the second watch of the night should come, that 
the Persians might not see them setting out and 
^end out horsemen to annoy them ; and they pur- 
posed also, as soon as they had reached the island, 
ti> send half the army to Kithairon to bring away 
the servants, who had been sent to fetch food but 
were shut up in the mountain. 

All that day, then, they were grievously pressed 52 
by the horsemen of the Persians ; but as the day 
ended, the enemy attacked them no more. And 
when the hour of the night came which had been 
agreed upon and they set out on their march, 
they forgot the place to which they had been 
commanded to go, but, in their wish to escape from 
the enemy, went straight to the city of Plataiai, 
and there gladly piled their arms before the tem- 
ple of Here. So when Pausanias saw them set- 5S 
ting out from the camp, he supposed that they 
were marching to the island of Oeroe, and gave 
command to the Lacedaemonians to take up their 
arms and follow those who were going before them. 
This command all the captains were ready to obey, 
except Amompharetos, the leader of the Lochos of 
Pitane,^ who said that he would never fly from 
the strangers and so bring shame upon Sparta. 
And he marvelled at what was going on, because 
* See Appendix III. 
P 2 




212 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IX. he had not been present at the council. But Pau- 
sanias and Euryanax were greatly vexed that he 
did not obey ; and still more were they grieved at 
the thought of leaving the band of Pitane behind, 
lest Amompharetos should be slain vdth all his 
men. So they kept all their men still, and tried 
to persuade him that he ought not so to do. While 
they thus urged on Amompharetos, the Athenians 
64 also remained quiet in their ranks, suspecting that 
the Lacedaemonians had said one thing but meant 
another. But when the army began to move, they 
sent a horseman to see if the Spartans also were 
preparing to set out, and, if not, to ask Pausanias 

55 what ought to be done. In the meanwhile Pau- 
sanias and Euryanax failed to gain over Amom- 
pharetos, and they were in loud quarrel together 
when the herald of the Athenians came. Presently 
Amompharetos took up a piece of rock with both 
his hands, and, placing it at the feet of Pausanias, 
said, ' Thus do I cast my vote against the counsel 
of flying from the strangers.' But Pausanias 
called him a brainstruck madman, and, turning 
to the herald who sought an answer to his message, 
bade him tell the Athenians how matters stood 
and ask them to take their stand near them. 

56 So the herald departed, and the quarrel of the 
Spartans was not yet ended when the day broke ; 
and then Pausanias, thinking (and, as the issue 
showed, truly) that Amompharetos would never 



THE INFATUATION OF MARDONIOS. 213 

remain if all the rest were fairly gone^ made the i 
signal and led the others away through the hillocks, 
followed by the men of Tegea. But the Athenians 
went another way, for the Lacedaemonians, fearing 
the horsemen of the enemy, kept close to the slopes 
of Kithairon, while the Athenians turned lower 
down into the plain. At first Amompharetos, 57 
thinking that they would not dare to leave him, 
stuck to his old place ; but as the men with Pau- 
sanias went farther, and it seemed that they were 
really going away, he made his band take up their 
arms, and led them slowly to join the others who 
were waiting for him about ten furlongs away near 
the river Moloeis, where stands a temple of the 
Eleusinian Demeter. Here Pausanias had halted, 
that he might be able to go back and help Amom- 
pharetos if he should still refuse to move. But 
no sooner had he come up with his men than the 
barbarian horsemen again began to annoy them, 
for when they found the place empty where the 
Greeks had stood, they hastened on to overtake 
them. 

When Mardonios heard that they were gone, 53 
he called Thorax of Larissa and his two brothers, 
and said to them, ' Children of Aleuas, what say 
ye, now that 5^0 see all this ? You, who dwell 
near them, used to tell me that the Lacedaemo- 
nians never fled from battle, but were the bravest 
of men in war. Yet first you saw them trying to 



214 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

IX. shift their place, and now, during the night that 
is past, we find that they have fairly fled. In very 
truth have they shown themselves to be worthless 
even anaong worthless Greeks, on the day in 
which they are doomed to do battle with those 
who in very deed are the bravest of mankind. 
You indeed, who know nothing of Persians, I can 
pardon for praising the Lacedsemonians, for whom 
ye have some fellow-feeling ; but I am only the 
more astonished that Artabazos should have feared 
them, and given to me the cowardly counsel that 
we ought to march away and shut ourselves up 
in Thebes. Of a truth the king shall hear of all 
this from me ; but there will be time enough to 
speak of this hereafter. Now we must hunt out 
these Greeks and punish them for all the evils 
59 that they have done to the Persians.' So having 
spoken, he led his men across the Asopos, and 
then made them run in the track of the Greeks, 
who, as he thought, were flying. Thus he hastened 
to catch the Lacedaemonians and the men of 
Tegea, for he could not see the Athenians, who 
had gone down into the plain under the hillocks. 
And when the other barbarians saw that the 
Persians were gone in chase of the Greeks, they 
all arose, and, following as quickly as they could 
in no ranks or order, hurried on with cries and 
screams as if they were going to tear the Greeks 
to pieces. 



PAUSANIAS ASKS HELP OF THE ATHENIANS. 215 

When the horsemen began to press him. Pan- tx. 60 
sanias sent a messenger to the Athenians who said 
to them, ' Men of Athens, we, the Lacedaemonians, 
have together with you been betrayed by our 
allies, who this night have fled just as the great 
struggle has come which is to decide whether Hel- 
las shall be enslaved or free. We must help one 
another, then, as best we may. If the horsemen 
had come against you, then should we and the 
men of Tegea who have not betrayed their country 
have been bound to help you ; but now they haA^e 
come upon us, and it is only fair that ye should 
hasten to those who are in distress. But if ye 
cannot yourselves come to our aid, send some 
archers, and we will thank you for the help, as 
we believe that ye will grant us this kindness 
by reason of the zeal which ye have shown 
throughout the war.' On learning this, the 61 
Athenians made all haste to go and help them 
to the best of their power ; but as they were set- 
ting out, the Grreeks who were on the king's side 
attacked them and hindered them from going. 
And so the Lacedaemonians, who were fifty thou- 
sand, and the men of Tegea (who were never 
separated from them), three thousand, being now 
left all alone, offered sacrifice, as being about to do 
battle with Mardonios and his army. But the signs 
were not good ; and many of them were slain, 
and many more wounded. For the Persians placed 



216 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAR. 



n 



their shields together and shot out their arrows 
without sparing them, so that the Spartans were 
greatly distressed; and Pausanias, looking away 
to the temple of Here in Plataiai, called upon the 
name of the goddess, and prayed her not to let 
them be disappointed of their hope. 

62 While he yet prayed thus, the men of Tegea 
rose up first, and went against the barbarians ; 
and immediately after the prayer of Pausanias 
there came good signs to the Lacedaemonians, 
who also rose up and hastened to meet the Per- 
sians, as they stood in front and shot at them 
w^ith their bows. First, then, they fought against 
the fence of shields ; and when this had fallen, 
there was a sharp fight for a long time, close 
to the temple of Demeter, until they pressed 
close and pushed one another, for the barbarians 
seized their spears and broke them otf. In spirit^ 
then, and strength of body the Persians were not 
weaker than their enemies, but they were without 
heavy arms, and had not the same skill and 
knowledge of war with the Grreeks ; and rushing 
forward singly or in small numbers, or mingled 
together in a wild strife, they fell into the hands 

63 of the Spartans and were slain. But most of 
all they pressed the enemy where Mardonios him- 
self fought on the back of a white horse with 
the thousand chosen Persians round him. And 
as long as Mardonios remained alive, they stood 



THE DEATH OF MARDONIOS. 217 

firm and slew many of the Lacedaomonians : but i: 
presently Mardonios was slain and the chosen 
men that were with him fell, and then all the 
others yielded and fled before the Lacedsemo- 
nians ; for, having to fight with heavy-armed men, 
they were most of all hurt by their dress, which 
was not strong enough to defend their body. 

Thus Mardonios paid the recompense for the 64 
murder of Leonidas, as the priestess had spoken 
to the Spartans; and so Pausanias the son of ' 
Kleombrotos gained the most glorious of all vic- 
tories. The man who slew Mardonios was called 
Aeimnestos, a man of great note in Sparta, who 
afterwards, when there was a war with the Messe- 
nians, was slain by them with his three hundred 
chosen men in Stenyklaros. 

When the Persians were turned to flight by the 65 
Lacedaemonians, they fled in disorder to their own 
camp and to the wooden fence which they had 
made in the Theban ground. And a marvellous 
thing it is that, although they fought by the grove 
of Demeter, not one of the Persians entered her 
sacred portion or died within it, but the most of 
them fell in the common ground around the 
temple ; and I believe (if it be right to think at 
all on matters such as this) that the goddess her- 
self would not receive them because they had burnt 
her temple at Eleusis. 

Now Artabazos the son of Pharnakes had been 66 



218 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

.IX. displeased at the first because the king left Mar- 
donios to rule the army, and before the battle 
he souQ^ht in vain to dissuade him from fio^htinof. 
And so, being vexed at what Mardonios was doing, 
he took his men (and they were not less than four 
myriads) as soon as the fight began, charging them 
to follow him wherever he might lead them ; and 
with this command he led them, as he said, to the 
battle. But as he went in front he saw that the 
Persians were already in flight, and so he wheeled 
his men round and fled, not to the wooden fence 
or into the walls of Thebes, but to the Phokian 
land, because he wished to reach the Hellespont 
as quickly as he could. 

67 Of the Greeks who had taken the king's side, 
the Boiotians fought for a long time with the 
Athenians ; and the Thebans did battle obstinately 
and fiercely, so that three hundred of their first 
and bravest men were there slain. But when they 
also were routed, they fled to Thebes, but not by 
the way that the Persians had taken. Of the other 
Grreeks who were in the barbarian army not one 

68 fought bravely, but all fled away together. And 
so it becomes clear that all the welfare of the 
barbarians depended upon the Persians, since even 
these ran away without fighting, because they saw 
Persians in flight. All fled, then, except the Boio- 
tian and other horsemen, who kept close to their 
enemies and hindered them from falling on their 



THE TAKING OF THE PERSIAN CAMP. 219 

friends ; and the Greeks followed in their victory, 69 ix. 
chasing and slaying the men of Xerxes. In the 
midst of this panic, a message was brought to the 
other Greeks (who, being drawn up round the 
temple of Here, had taken no share in the fight), 
that the battle was fought and the men of Pau- 
sanias were conquerors. On hearing this, without 
falling into any order, the Corinthians hurried 
by the hillocks and the lower mountain slopes on 
the road which goes to the temple of Demeter, 
while the men of Megara and Phlious kept the 
smoothest way through the plain. As these ap- 
proached the enemy, the Theban horsemen saw 
them coming up in disorder and, attacking them, 
struck down six hundred^ while they drove back 
the rest and chased them to Kithairon. But the 70 
Persians and the rest of their host who fled to 
the wooden fence mounted the towers before the 
Lacedsemonians could come up, and secured the 
walls as well as they could, so that, when they 
came, there was a fiercer fight against the wall, 
which they were unable to take because they knew 
nothing of this way of fighting. And even when 
the Athenians came up, the fight was fierce and 
long. At last, by their courage and their ob- 
stinacy, the Athenians clambered up and made 
a breach through Avhich the Grreeks poured in. 
First entered the men of Tegea, who tore down 
the tent of Mardonios and plundered it, taking 



220 TALE OF THF GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

among other things the manger of his horse, 
which was made of brass and very beautiful. This 
manger the men of Tegea dedicated at the 
temple of the Alean Athene ; but whatever else 
they took they brought into a common store for 
the Grreeks. But the barbarians no longer stood 
their ground in firm masses when the wall fell, 
and showed no more stoutness of heart, but ran 
about in frantic terror, being many myriads shut 
up in a scanty place. So the Grreeks slew on, 
until of the thirty myriads (except the four 
which Artabazos had led away) not three thousand 
remained alive. In this battle there fell of the 
Spartans ninety-one men, of the Tegeatans six- 
teen, and of the Athenians fifty-two. 
71 Among the barbarians, the bravest of the foot- 
men were the Persians, and of the horsemen the 
Sakai ; and of all the men none, it is said, was so 
brave as Mardonios. Of the Grreeks, the men of 
Tegea and Athens did well, but the Lacedaemo- 
nians did better ; yet it is not easy to show how 
(for all conquered the men who were placed in 
front of them), except that they had to face the 
strongest of the enemy and conquered them. 
But by far the bravest among them was that 
Aristodemos who was disgraced for being the 
only one of the three hundred who returned home 
from Thermopylai ; and next to him came Po- 
seidonios, and Philokyon, and Amompharetos. 



THE DEATH OF AEISTODEMOS. 221 

Yet, when they afterwards sought to fix who was ix. 
the best, the Spartans who were present judged 
that Ari.stodemos had shown his daring by leaving 
his ranks and fighting with mad fury, because 
he wished to fling away his life ; but that Posei- 
donios did bravely although he did not wish to 
die, and was thus far the better man. This, 
however, was spoken from grudge and jealousy ; 
and so the others whom I have named were 
honoured because they fell in this battle; but 
Aristodemos lost his glory for seeking, as they 
said, to die. 

These were the men who won the greatest 72 
name in Plataiai ; for Kallikrates, the most beau- 
tiful not only of the Lacedsemonia-ns but of all 
the Greeks, died away from the battle. For, as 
Pausanias was offering sacrifice, he was wounded 
in the side by an arrow while he was sitting 
down. So he was carried away, while the rest 
fought ; and, as the pains of death pressed him 
hard, he said to Aeimnestos of Plataiai, that it 
grieved him not to die for Hellas, but because he 
had not been suffered to strike a blow in the 
battle and to do bravely for his country, as he 
wished to do. 

Among the Athenians, the man who won the 73 
greatest name was Sophanes of Dekeleia, of 74 
whom the tale is told that he carried an iron 
anchor fastened to his breast-plate by a brazen 



222 TALE OF THE GEEAT PERSIAN WAE. 

chain, and with this, whenever he came near any 
of the enemy, he threw them out of their ranks, 
while he stood fast in his own ; and when they 
fled, he took up his anchor and chased them. 
But another story is, that he bore the sign of an 
anchor on his shield which flashed everywhere 
and was never still, but not one made of steel 
hanging from his corslet. 
76 And when the barbarians had been smitten by 
the Greeks in Plataiai, there came a woman on a 
chariot with her handmaids, all arrayed in their 
fairest raiment ; and, dismounting from it, she 
went towards the Laced99monians who were still 
slaying their enemies. When she saw that Pau- 
sanias was ordering everything, she drew near to 
him (for she knew his name before, and whence 
he came) and took him by the knees, saying, 
' King of Sparta, save me, I beseech thee, 
from slavery. Thus far thou hast helped me, by 
slaying these barbarians, who had no care of gods 
or men. I am a woman of Kos and a daughter 
of Hegetoridas; and the Persians took me from 
my home by force.' And Pausanias answered, 
^Be of good courage, not only because thou 
comest as a suppliant, but because (if thy tale be 
true) thou art the daughter of a man who more 
than all others is my friend among those who 
dwell in the parts of which thou hast spoken.' 
Then he intrusted her to those of the ephors who 



THE COUNSEL OF LAMPON. 223 

were preserxt, and afterwards sent her to Aigina, i 
whither she wished to go. 

Immediately after this, the men of Mantineia 77 
came up, and were greatly grieved when they 
found that they were too late, and confessed that 
they deserved to be punished. But, hearing that 
Artabazos with his men was flying to the Hel- 
lespont, they were setting out to chase them as 
far as Thessaly; but the Lacedaemonians would 
not suffer them so to do. So they went back to 
their own land, and then drove their leaders out 
of the country. And after them came the men 
of Elis, who also went home greatly grieved, and 
banished their leaders from the land. 

While they were in the camp at Plataiai, there 78 
went to Pausanias Lampon, the son of Pytheas, a 
great man among the Aiginetans, with a horrible 
prayer. Drawing near to him in haste, he said, 
' Son of Kleombrotos, thou hast this day done a 
work marvellous for its greatness and its glory, 
and Heaven hath permitted thee to deliver Hellas 
and to win a name beyond that of all the Greeks 
who are known to us. Finish then what yet re- 
mains for thee to do, that so thou mayest become 
yet more glorious and that the barbarians may 
dread to insult the Grreeks hereafter. For when 
Leonidas died in Thermopylai, Mardonios and 
Xerxes cut off his head and hung his body on a 
cross. Requite it therefore now to Mardonios, 



224 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

and thou shalt have praise not only from the 
79 Spartans but from all the Greeks.' Then an- 
swered Pausanias and said, ^Aiginetan friend, 
I thank thee for thy good- will and forethought ; 
yet thou hast missed the right judgment. For, 
having extolled my country and my deeds, thou 
hast brought them also to nothing by bidding me 
to insult a dead body and by saying that for such 
a deed I shall be the better spoken of. All this is 
fitter for barbarians than for Grreeks^ and we hate 
it even in them ; and if such a thing be needed, 
then may I never please the men of Aigina, or 
any who may like such doings. It is enough for 
me to please the Spartaus by right deeds and 
right words. Leonidas, whom thou urgest me to 
avenge, has, I tell thee, been mightily avenged 
already, and he, with all who fell in Thermopylai, 
has been glorified in the countless numbers who 
have been slain here. Dare not then to approach 
me any more with such words as these or to give 
me the like counsel, and be grateful to me that 
thou goest away scatheless.' 

Then Pausanias commanded by a herald that 
none should touch the booty, but that the helots 
should gather everything into one common store. 
So they went through all the camp, and found 
tents adojned with gold and silver, and gilded 
couches, with drinking bowls and cups and goblets 
of solid gold ; and on the waggons were sacks with 



THE SHARING OF THE BOOTY. 225 

gold and silver vessels. From the dead that i 
lay on the ground they stripped off bracelets 
and chains and gilded daggers, for of embroi- 
dered garments no one took any heed. Of all 
this the helots stole much and sold much to the 
Aiginetans, while they gave account of all that they 
could not hide ; and hence began the great wealth 
of the men of Aigina, who bought gold from the 
helots, telling them that it was brass. 

So when all had been gathered together, they si 
set apart the portions for the gods. With that 
which was given to the god at Delphi they dedi- 
cated the golden tripod which stands on the 
three-headed brazen serpent close to the altar ; 
and from the portion of the Olympian god they 
set up a brazen statue of Zeus ten cubits in height; 
and from that which was given to the Isthmian 
god was made a brazen figure of Poseidon seven 
cubits high. All the rest they divided, to each man 
his share according to his deserving, — the women, 
the gold and the silver, with all other things 
and the beasts. But it is not said what special 
gifts were set apart for those who had fought most 
bravely at Plataiai ; yet some, I suppose, were given. 
For Pausanias himself there was set apart a tenth 
of everything, women, horses, money, camels, and 
all other things in like manner. A tale is also 82 
told that Xerxes, when he fled from Hellas, left 
his furniture with Mardonios, and that Pausanias, 

Q 



226 TALE OF THE GREAT PEESIAN WAR. 

*c. when he saw it all blazing with gold and silver and 
embroidered hangings, commanded the cooks and 
bakers to make ready for him a banquet, as they 
had been wont to do for Mardonios. When all 
was ready he saw couches and tables of gold and 
silver all fairly spread and a banquet splendidly set 
forth; and then, marvelling at this magnificence 
and glory, he charged his own servants, by way 
of mockery, to prepare a Lakonian feast. So the 
meal was made ready, but it looked not much 
like the other ; and Pausanias laughed and, send- 
ing for the generals of the Grreeks, pointed to the 
two banquets which were spread before them, 
saying, 'Men of Hellas, I have brought you 
together that ye may see the madness of the Mede 
who faring thus sumptuously came to rob us of 

83 our sorry food.' Long after this many also of 
the Plataians used to find treasures of gold and 
silver and other things which had not been ga- 
thered by the helots. 

84 The day after the battle the body of Mardonios 
disappeared ; but none can tell for certain who 
took it. Many people of all sorts were said to 
have buried Mardonios, and I know that many 
received rich gifts from Artontes, the son of Mar- 
donios, for the burial of his father ; but the 
greater number seem to think that he was buried 
by a man of Ephesos. 

85 After the sharing of the spoil, the Greeks buried 



THE BUKIAL OF THE GEEEKS. 227 

their dead according to their nations. The Lace- ix. 
daemonians made three tombs, one for the chosen 
Spartans, amongst whom were Poseidonios and 
Amompharetos,Philokyon and Kallikrates; another 
for the rest of the Spartans, and the third for the 
helots. In like manner the men of Tegea and 
Athens, Megara and Phlious, buried their dead, 
each in a separate grave. Of all these the tombs 
were full ; the rest, it is said, were empty ; but 
those who were not present at the battle piled 
them up through shame, for the sake of the 
generations to come. Certainly there is among 
them a tomb which is called the sepulchre of the 
Aiginetans, which, it is said, Kleadas, a Plataian, 
their friend, raised up at their desire ten years 
after the battle. 

When they had ended the burial of the dead, 86 
they took counsel and determined at once to 
march against Thebes and demand the men who 
had taken the side of the Persians, and chiefly 
Timagenidas and Attaginos, who had been foremost 
in the matter ; and if the Thebans should refuse 
to give them up, they resolved not to go away 
until they had pulled down their city. So on the 
eleventh day after the battle they went and laid 
siege to Thebes, charging them to bring out the 
men; and when they would not, they ravaged the 
land and made an onset against their wall. And 87 
so things went on till the twentieth day, when 

Q2 



228 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

Timagenidas said to the Thebans, ' Men of Thebes, || 
since the Grreeks seem resolved not to raise the 
siege until either they have destroyed the city or 
ye surrender us, let not the Boiotian land suffer 
more evil for our sakes. And if they ask for us 
only that they may get money, then let us give 
it to them out of the common treasury ; for in 
common did we take the part of the king, and it 
was not done by us alone. But if they really wish 
to seize us, then are we ready to go and defend 
ourselves before them.' On hearing this, the 
Thebans gladly and quickly sent a herald to 
Pausanias, saying that they would give up the 

88 men ; but when the covenant was made, Attaginos 
fled from the city, and Pausanias sent away his 
children unhurt when they were brought to him 
instead of their father, saying that the children 
could not be partakers of their father's sin. But 
the other men whom the Thebans gave up thought 
that they would be suffered to defend themselves 
and to win their freedom by money ; and Pausanias, 
suspecting this, sent away all his allies as soon as 
he received them, and taking them to Corinth slew 
them there. 

89 Meanwhile Artabazos was far away on his road 
from Plataiai ; and when he reached Thessaly, the 
men of that country called him to a banquet and 
asked him of the welfare of the army, having 
beard nothing of what had happened at Plataiai . 



THE TRICK OF ARTABAZOS. 229 

But Artabazos, knowing that, if he were to tell 
them the truth, he should run a risk of destroying 
himself and all his army, made no answer to the 
Phokians, while to the Thessalians he said, ' I am 
hastening, men of Thessaly, as ye see, wdth all 
speed into Thrace, being sent on weighty business 
from the army with the men who are with me. 
But Mardonios is close at hand and all his army 
with him : receive him as your guest and treat 
him kindly, and ye shall never have cause to 
repent it.' And so having spoken, he led his 
army with all speed through Thessaly and Mace- 
donia to the Thracian land, keeping the roads 
which were far away from the sea until he 
reached Byzantion, having left behind him many 
of his army who were cut to pieces by the Thra- 
cians on the march, or who died from hunger or 
worn out by toil. From Byzantion he crossed 
over in boats, and so got back into Asia. 



230 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



CHAPTEE X. 



THE EIGHT AT MTKALE. — THE MARVEL OF THE HERALD'S 
STAFF. — THE LOVES OF KING XERXES AT SARDES AND 
AT SOUSA. — THE VENGEANCE OF PROTESILAOS. 



roiavG' opSovres rcuvSe rairiTifjiia 
IJL€fxvri(r6' ^AOrjvcay 'E\Ac£5os re. 

-SlSCHYLTJS. 



"ix'^go"^ On the same day on which the battle was fought in 
Plataiai, the Persians were beaten also at Mykale 
in the land of Ionia. For while the Grreeks who 
came by sea with Leotychides the Lacedaemonian 
were in Delos, there came from Samos heralds 
who had been sent by the Samians without the 
knowledge of the Persians and of Theomestor 
whom the Persians had set up to be their tyrant. 
And when they were brought before the generals, 
one of them spake and said, ' ye Grreeks, we 
pray you, come and help us ; for if the lonians 
only see you, they will shake off the yoke of the 
Persians, and the barbarians will never withstand 
you. But even if they should do so, ye will 
never find such another prey again. Think of the 



THE aREEK FLEET SAILS FOK SAMOS. 231 

gods whom we worship in commoD, and deliver 
from slavery men who are Greeks as ye are, and 
chase away the barharian. It is no hard task to 
which we call you : their ships sail wretchedly and 
are not fit to do battle with yours. And if ye think 
that we are dealing craftily, we are ready to go 
back with you in your ships and be pledges to you 
for the truth of our words.' 

So the Samian continued to beseech him vehe- 91 
mently, until Leotychides, either wishing to know 
by what name to call him., or by the ordering of 
some god, asked the Samian what might be his 
name ; and he said Hegesistratos, ^ the man who 
leads an army.' Then breaking in upon the 
speech of the herald, Leotychides spake in haste, 
* Samian friend, I take up the omen of thy 
name; and thou canst return home when thou 
hast given us surety that the Samians will in very 
truth be faithful to us in war.' 

Then the Samians gave the pledge and sware 92 
the oath, after which they all sailed away except 
Hegesistratos, whom Leotychides kept because of 
the omen of his name. And the Greeks tarried that 
day where they were. But on the following day, 
when Deiphonos the soothsayer had told them 
that the victims gave good signs, they set out from 
Delos to sail to Samos ; and w^hen they drew near 96 
to Kalamoi, which is in Samos, they moored their 
ships in front of the temple of Here. But the 



232 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAE, 

Persians, when they learnt that the Greeks were 
coming, set out to sail to the mainland with all 
their ships except those of the Phoenicians, which 
they sent away altogether. This they did in their 
wish to avoid a fight bj^ sea, in which they did not 
think themselves a match for their enemies ; and 
so they sailed away, that they might be under the 
wing of the land army in Mykale, which Xerxes 
had left to guard Ionia. And this host numbered 
six myriads of men, of whom Tigranes, a man be- 
yond all the Persians for stature and beauty, was 
the general. Here the captains of the ships pur- 
posed to draw up their vessels and throw a hedge 
round them, as a safe place to which they might 

97 fly for refuge. So when they came near the 
temple of the Potniai in Mykale, and to Gau- 
son and Skolopoeis, where there is a temple of the 
Eleusinian Demeter, they drew their ships upon 
the land, and cast round them a rampart of stones 
and logs of wood, cutting down the fruit trees, and 
then drove in stakes all round the rampart. Thus 
they made ready, counting all chances, whether 
they should win the day or be shut up within 
their rampart. 

98 When the Greeks found that the barbarians were 
gone away to the mainland, they were vexed that 
they had thus escaped, and knew not whether 
they ought to return home or sail towards the 
Hellespont. At last they resolved to do neither 



LEOTTCHIDES SPEAKS TO THE lONIANS. 233 

of these things, but to sail to the mainland, with r. 
ladders and whatever else might be needed for a 
sea-fight. And when they came near Mykale and 
saw no one sailing out against them, but the ships 
drawn up within the wall, while the army of the 
Persians stood in battle-array along the beach, 
Leotychides approached the shore in his ship and 
called out to the lonians, saying, ' lonians, 
listen to my words, as many of jt^ou as can hear 
me, for the Persians cannot understand what I 
say to you. When the battle begins, first remem- 
ber your freedom, and next to this the watchword 
'Hebe!' and give this password to all who may 
not hear it.' These words followed the device 
of Themistokles at Artemision, for either they 
might win over the lonians without the knowledge 
of the Persians, or, if these understood them, 
would make them jealous of the lonians. 

After this, the Grreeks went out from their ships 99 
and drew themselves up in battle-array upon the 
land. Then the Persians, seeing them preparing 
for the fight and knowing that they had spoken to 
the lonians, took away the arms of the Samians, 
whose faith they doubted because they had ran- 
somed the Athenian captives who had been brought 
in the Persian ships and sent them back to Athens, 
haviDg given them food for their journey. And 
the passes which lead to the heights of Mykale they 
intrusted to the men of Miletos, because, as they 



234 TALE OF THE GKEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

I. said, they knew the country well, but really because 
they wished to get them away from the camp. 
While they dealt thus with those of the lonians 
who, as they thought, would betray them if they 
had the power, they put their shields together as 
a defence against their enemies. 

10^ So the Grreeks made ready and then went forth 
to meet the barbarians. And as they marched, a 
rumour went throughout the whole army, and a 
herald's staff was seen lying upon the sea-shore : 
and the rumour was that even at that hour a battle 
was being fought in the Boiotian land and that 
the Grreeks were conquerors in it. And sure in- 
deed are the tokens of those things which are 
ordered by the gods, since, on the very day in 
which Mardonios fell with his army in Plataiai, 
there came a rumour to the Greeks in My kale 
which cheered their hearts and sent them forth 
more eagerly to the battle. 

101 It so chanced also that at My kale as at Plataiai 
there was a temple of the Eleusinian Demeter 
near the battle-ground. And the rumour was true 
that the Grreeks with Pausanias had won the fight, 
for the battle at Plataiai was fought early in the 
morning, and the fight took place at Mykale when 
the sun was going down in the sky ; and they 
assured themselves afterwards that both happened 
on the same day of the same month. Before 
this rumour came, they were afraid not so much 



THE PERSIAN CAMP IS STORMED. 235 

for themselves as for the Grreeks in Boiotia lest u 
they should be beaten by Mardonios, for then 
all Hellas would be in his power. But when 
the rumour came, they hastened with the greater 
speed to the conflict, and the barbarians also 
hurried to the fight, for the islands and the 
Hellespont lay before them as the prizes for that 
day's battle. 

So they came on ; and, for the Athenians and 102 
those who were next to them, the road lay along 
the shore and on level land ; but for the other half 
of the army with the Lacedsemonians, along the 
bed of a torrent and over hilly ground. While 
these were going round, the men on the other wing 
had already begun the fight ; and as long as their 
fence of shields stood upright, the Persians had 
none the worse of the battle : but the Athenians 
with their neighbours desired greatly that the work 
might be done by them and not by the Lacedae- 
monians, and, cheering each other on to fight more 
vehemently, presently changed the face of the 
battle. Soon they dashed down the rampart of 
shields and burst in a mass upon the Persians, 
who stood their ground bravely for a long time 
but at last were driven back to the wall ; and 
the Athenians broke in with the men of Corinth, 
of Troizen, and of Sikyon. When the wall 
was taken, the barbarians stood no longer on 
their own defence, but all turned to fly except 



236 TALE OF THE GKEAT PERSIAN WAR. 

i. the Persians, and these fought bravely in little 
knots against the Greeks as they streamed into 
the camp. Of the Persian leaders two escaped, 
and the other two, Tigranes, the general of the 
footmen, and Mardontes, were slain. 

103 While the fight still went on, the Laceda^.mo- 
nians came up with the rest and helped them to 
finish the battle. And many of the Greeks also 
fell, chiefly among the men of Sikyon, whose 
leader Perilaos was killed ; and when the Samians 
in the Median camp, whose arms the barbarian 
had taken away, saw that the battle was doubtful, 
they did all that they could to help the Greeks ; 
so that the other lonians, seeing this, turned 
openly against the barbarians and fell upon them. 

104 But the Persians fared worse at the hands of 
the Milesians. These they had sent to guard the 
passes, not only that they might not be able to 
do mischief in the camp, but that, if the battle 
went against them, they might have safe guides 
to lead them to the heights of Mykale. Instead 
of this, they guided the Persians by roads which 
led them down to the enemy, until at last they 
turned round and slew them more fiercely than 
the other G-reeks had done. And thus Ionia again 
shook off the yoke of the barbarian. 

105 In this battle the Athenians won most glory; 
and among them the most honoured was Hermo- 
lykos, who fell afterwards in a war with the men 



THE DEFENCE OF IONIA. 237 

of Karystos. And when the Greeks had slain ix. 106 
most of the Persians, whether in the battle or as 
they fled, they brought out the booty to the sea- 
shore ; and then, having burnt the ships and the 
wall, sailed away to Samos. There they took 
counsel for the safety of Ionia, and how they 
might place the lonians in some part of Hellas 
which they could defend, while they left Ionia to 
the barbarians. For it seemed impossible that 
they could stay to guard Ionia for ever ; and if 
they did not do so, they had no hope that the 
lonians would escape unhurt by the Persians. 
The Peloponnesians therefore thought that they 
ought to give to the lonians the lands of those 
Greeks who had taken the side of the king. 
But the Athenians would not suffer Ionia to be 
given up to their enemies, or that the men of 
the Peloponnesos should take thought for places 
to which the Athenians had sent their people; 
and as they stood out obstinately, the Peloponne- 
sians yielded. So they joined to themselves by a 
covenant the men of Samos, Chios, and Lesbos, 
and all the other islanders who were with them, 
and caused them to give pledges and to swear by 
an oath that they would abide by what they had 
promised and never break away from it. And 
then they sailed away for the Hellespont, to 
destroy the bridges which they thought to find 
still fastened. 



238 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 

107 Those of the barbarians (and they were but few 
in number) who had fled to the heights of Mykale 
escaped afterwards to Sardes ; and while they 
were on the road, Masistes, the son of Darius, 
who had seen the disaster of the army, reviled 
Artayntes, the general, with bitter words, telling 
him that he was worse than a woman and that he 
deserved every torment for having brought this 
hurt on the house of the king. Now there is no 
reproach among the Persians more vile than to 
be called ^ worse than a woman ;' and Artayntes, 
after listening for a long time, at last drew his 
dagger to kill Masistes. But Xeinagoras, a man 
of Halikarnassos, who stood behind Artayntes, 
seized him round the body, when he saw this, and 
dashed him upon the ground ; and in the mean- 
while the spearbearers gathered round Masistes. 
Thus did Xeinagoras in order to win favour with 
the king for saving the life of his brother ; and 
Xerxes afterwards gave him all Kilikia for a re- 
ward. Nothing further happened on the march, 
and in Sardes they found the king, who was 
tarrying there after his flight from Athens. 

108 While he yet sojourned in Sardes, Xerxes sought 
in vain to win the love of the wife of his brother 
Masistes ; and when he failed in this, he betrothed 
the daughter of Masistes to his own son Darius, 
and then departed to Sousa, when he brought his 
son's wife into the palace. Then Xerxes began 



THE LOYES OF KINO XERXES. 239 

to love her instead of her mother; and in no ix. 109 
long time Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, saw the 
daughter of Masistes wearing a robe which she 
had made herself and given to the king; hut 
instead of being wroth with her, she determined to 
destroy her mother. So she waited patiently till 
the king's birthday came ; and at the feast she 
went up to Xerxes and asked him to give her 
the wife of Masistes. Then Xerxes strove long 
against Amestris ; but on that day the custom of 
the Persians is that the king should not say nay 
to the prayer of those who come before him. 
So he gave her, and sending for Masistes, he said, 
' Thou art the son of Darius, and my brother; and 
thou art moreover a brave man. Grive up then the 
wife whom thou hast now, for I like it not that 
thou shouldest have her, and I will give thee my 
daughter in her stead.' And Masistes marvelled 
and said, ' king, my wife is the mother of my 
sons and of my daughters, one of whom thou 
hast given in marriage to thine own son. Why, 
then, dost thou wish me to marry thy daughter 
and to give up my wife whom I greatly love ? I 
thank thee, king, because thou hast thought me 
worthy to marry thy daughter; but I can do none 
of these things. Force it not on, then ; there are 
other men who deserve thy daughter better ; leave 
me to dwell with my wife in peace.' Then was 
Xerxes wroth and said, ' Well, Masistes, thou 



240 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



3 



^. shalt not marry my daughter nor keep thy wife, 
that thou may est know how to receive my gifts.' 
Then Masistes answered only, ^ king, thou hast 

112 not yet ruined me.' But, even while they 
were talking, Amestris had sent spearbearers to 
fetch the wife of Masistes ; and Amestris mangled 
her shamefully on her face and on her body and 

113 then sent her home. Then Masistes, knowing 
nothing of this, yet foreboding some evil, ran to 
his house, and seeing his wife thus torn and 
mangled took counsel with his sons and set out 
to go to Baktra with his army, that thence he 
might make war upon the king; and Xerxes, 
hearing that he was gone, sent after him and slew 
his brother with his children and all his army. 
Thus fared it with the loves of King Xerxes. 

114 At Lekton, the Greeks, who had set out from 
Mykale, were hindered for a while by winds from 
sailing further ; but afterwards they reached Aby- 
dos, and found the bridges, for which they had 
chiefly gone thither, unloosed and broken. And 
upon this the Peloponnesians with Leotychides 
resolved to sail away to Hellas; but the Athenians 
under Xanthippos crossed over to the Chersonesos 
and laid siege to Sestos, into which, as being the 
strongest place in that land, Oiobazos, a Persian, 
had brought the cables by which the bridges had 
been fastened ; and with him were many other 
men besides the ^olians, whose the city was. 



I 



THE CRAFT OF ARTAYKTES. 241 

And the ruler of this country was Artayktes, a ix. 116 
Persian, a daring and impious man, who cheated 
the king as he was going to Athens, and stole the 
treasures of Protesilaos the son of Iphiklos : for at 
Elaious in the Chersonesos is his tomb with its plot 
of holy ground, where were goblets of gold and 
silver and much brass, with garments and other 
offerings. So Artayktes came to the king and 
said, ' king, there is here the house of a Greek 
who came against thy land and was slain, as he 
deserved. Grive me this man's house, that others 
may learn hereafter not to come against thee.' 
Then Xerxes easily suffered him to take it, not 
knowing at all the meaning of his words, and that 
Protesilaos had come long ago into Asia to make 
war against the men of Troy ; for Artayktes made 
Xerxes think that he had come against the Per- 
sians, because they hold that all Asia belongs only 
to the king. So he took the offerings and carried 
them away to Sestos, and ploughed up the sacred 
ground and profaned the holy place. And now 
the Athenians shut him up in Sestos unawares 
when he was not ready to endure a siege and 
thought not that the Grreeks were coming. But 
the siege lasted long, and the autumn came ; and 
the Athenians were vexed because they were kept 
away so long from home and could not take the 
wall. So they besought their leaders to take them 
home ; but they answered that they would not go 

R 



242 TALE OF THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR. 



thelj 



c. until either they had destroyed Sestos or 
Athenians should send for them. 

118 But the men in the city were now so hard* 
pressed by hunger and famine, that they boiled 
the ropes of their beds and ate them. And when 
they had no more left even of these, the Persians, 
with Artayktes and Oiobazos, fled by night, let- 
ting themselves down from the wall where it was 
least watched by the enem}^ So when it was day, 
the men of the city told the Athenians by signs 
what had happened and opened their gates ; and 
some of them held the city while the rest fol- 
lowed after the Persians. 
1 ] 9 Now Oiobazos had fled to Thrace ; and there 
he was taken by the men of Apsinthos, who sacri- 
ficed him, after their manner, to Pleistoros, the 
god of that land ; and the rest who were with him 
they slew in some other way. But Artayktes and 
his men set out later, and were caught a little way 
beyond x\igospotamoi. There they fought bravely 
for some time, and some were killed, while the rest, 
amongst whom were Artayktes and his son, were 
taken alive and carried in chains to Sestos. And 
the men of the Chersonesos say that a strange thing- 
happened to one of the men who guarded Artayktes 
as he was roasting dried fish. These, as they lay 
on the fire, leaped and gasped like fishes newly 
caught. But, while all who stood round mar- 
velled, Artayktes called to the man and said to 



THE VENGEANCE OF PROTESILAOS. 243 

him, ' Fear not for this strange sight. It has not i: 
been sent for thee ; but Protesilaos who dwells in 
Elaious gives me by this a sign that, though he is 
dead and his body wasted, he has power to punish 
the man that wrongs him. Now, therefore, I wish 
to make an atonement, and, in place of the offer- 
ings which I have taken from his temple, I will 
give a hundred talents to the god ; and as a ran- 
som for myself and my son, I will pay to the 
Athenians two hundred talents when they have 
set me free.' But for all his promises he could 
not prevail with their leader Xanthippos ; for the 
men of Elaious, in order to avenge Protesilaos, de- 
manded that he should be put to death, and this 
also Xanthippos was minded to do. So they 
brought him down to the sea-shore where Xerxes 
had fastened his bridge, or, as some say, to a hil- 
lock which is above the city of Madytos, and 
fastened him to some planks which they nailed 
together, after which they stoned his son to 
death before his eyes. 

When this was done, they sailed away to Hellas, 121 
taking with them the booty together with the 
cable of the bridge, to be placed as offerings in 
the temples. And so the war ended for that 
year. 



B 2 



APPENDIX I. 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION. 

If we may accept as substantially true and fair the 
picture which Perikles, in his great Funeral Oration, ^ 
draws of the political and social condition of Athens in 
his own days, we shall find it difficult indeed to avoid 
the conclusion that differences of time and place go for 
little or for nothing. All that is distinctive in English 
polity — its freedom of speech, the right of the people to 
govern themselves, the supremacy of the ordinary courts 
of law over all functionaries without exception, the 
practical restriction of state interference to the protection 
of person and property, the fair play given to the various 
tastes, fancies, prejudices, and caprices of individual 
citizens, may be seen in equal developement in the 
polity of Athens. Left to the full enjoyment of home life 
and of all that makes it graceful and valuable, not vexed 
by the eternal drill and worrying discipline of Sparta, 
her people were yet more ready than Spartans to sacri- 
fice everything on her behalf, for the simple reason that 
they had much more to sacrifice, and met hardships and 
dangers as bravely and with greater coolness and wisdom 
than the Spartans ever attained with their incessant mili- 
tary routine. 

» Thucyd. ii. 35-46. 



246 APPENDIX I. 

As we find it in the days of Perikles, the Athenian 
constitution, like our own, is a magnificent but a com- 
plicated fabric ; nor is it possible, in the compass of a 
few sentences or a few pages, to do it the same justice 
Avhich may be done to the comparatively rude and bar- 
barous constitution of Sparta. The arbitrary action of 
an irresponsible board, with power to put citizens to 
death without a trial, the joint kingship of two sovereigns 
vrho are practically no more than commanders-in-chief 
of the army in time of war, the slight influence of an 
assembly which, although oligarchic to the core, was yet 
endowed with the scantiest powers, make up a state of 
things which has scarcely a feature in common with the 
absolute supremacy of the Athenian people, the inde- 
feasible right of every citizen to a full and fair trial, and 
with a law which invested every citizen with judicial 
functions, and made it not only his right and privilege, 
but his bounden duty, to take part in the great work 
of government. 

But like the constitution of England, this full 
developement of Athenian democracy was the work of 
ages. It was no makeshift hastily adopted and modified 
at haphazard after the fashion of some European nations, 
who expel kings and queens and then sit down to 
meditate on the form of governments which may best 
suit their fancies or their interests. Like the English 
constitution, it was the fruit of long and arduous struggles, 
slowly ripened as the people awoke more and more to 
that consciousness of law and order which can only be 
fully awakened among a people who feel that the law 
which they obey is their own law, and that they obey 
it because it aims more and more at being in accord- 
ance with a justice and righteousness higher than that 
of man. Like the constitution of England at once in it 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION. 247 

coherence and in its powers of adaptation to change of 
circumstances, it carries us back in the history of its 
growth to times of w^hich we must candidly confess that 
we know little or perhaps know nothing : and we must 
on many matters be content either to suspend our judg- 
ment or to reason from signs which, as in the early 
history of English polity, seem to point to sufficiently 
probable conclusions. What the exact course of events 
?nay have been, or what may have been precisely the 
nature of the struggles which preceded the establish- 
ment of Athenian freedom, it would be rash to say posi- 
tively. As in the long contests between the opposing 
orders in the Eoman state, we cannot accept a narrative 
as historical merely because it is well defined in dates and 
details. A question is often settled only to be reopened 
again ; and the sequel of a struggle has not unfrequently 
very little to do w^ith the beginning.^ In Athenian his- 
tory it may at the least be said that the mists are not 
so thick as in that of Eome, and the evidence not so 
conflicting. 

The undoubted existence down to the time of Kleis- 
thenes (a period preceding only by a few years the battle 
of Marathon), of a subdivision by clans and houses carries 
us back almost to the earliest form of human society. 
Whatever may have been the meaning of the names 
which distinguished the four Attic tribes, Geleontes, 
Hopletes, Aigikoreis, Argades, it cannot be doubted 
that the point of starting was from the house or family 
upwards, and not from the larger division downw^ards. 
We have here in fact the same growth as that of the 

^ Sir G. C. Lewis, Credibility of Early Koman History, ch. xii. 
section 65, and passim. 



248 APPENDIX I. 

English families into tithings, hundreds, and shires, a 
division which preceded and survived the several king- 
doms into which the country was from time to time 
divided. The principle which underlay this grouping 
w^as one of blood and of religion. It would take no 
reckoning of those who were not sprung from the same 
stock ; and hence if the ninety Athenian gentes, grouped 
under their three Phratries, had under the titles of 
Trittyes and Naukrariai, a further political grouping 
which took in the whole country territorially, they still 
would not necessarily take in all the inhabitants of the 
land. All who could not share in the gentile sacrifices 
would be shut out ; and the influx of strangers and 
foreigners would tend to swell a population to which 
the existing social and political order allowed no poli- 
tical rights. It was the growth of such a population 
w^hich, owing to conflicts between the ruling classes, 
determined the form of Athenian democracy. 

Speculation is probably thrown away on the origin 
of the tribal names whether of the Ionic or of other 
races.i If we are to follow the tradition, these names 
were by no means permanent. Among the titles which 
they are said to have borne in the days of King Kranaos, 
two, Mesogaia and Diakria, seem to be not less geo- 
graphical than the titles Pediaioi, Paraloi, and Hyper- 
akrioi (men of the plains, the sea-coast, and the hills) 
which Mr. Grote '^ regards as names of factions, but in 
which Niebuhr^ seems rather inclined to see an original 
triple division answering to the Eamnenses, Titienses, and 

' Sir Gr. C. Lewis, Credibility of Early Eoman History, ch. xiv. 
sect. 17. 

2 History of Greece, Part ii. ch. xi. 
^ Lectures on Ancient History, xxiv. 



J 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION, 249 

Luceres of ancient Rome. Similar difficulties baffle our 
efforts to determine the meaning of each particular 
name. According to Mr. Grote, the Argades are artisans ; 
in Niebuhr's judgment they are tillers of the ground, 
Mr. Grote holds that the Geleontes are the cultivators, 
while Niebuhr asserts that they formed the priestly 
class. It may be enough to mention the conjecture 
which traces this last name to an old verb yiXeiVy 
meaning to shine, and sees in it a title corresponding 
to that of the Eoman Luceres. 

We are still on doubtful ground when we come to the 
story of the settlement of Athens as related by Thucy- 
dides, II. XV. The story is as plausible as that of Robinson 
Crusoe ; it really stands on precisely the level of the legend 
of Jack the Giant Killer, if we leave out all about Jack, 
the giant, and the bean. Of the Theseus who is said to 
have made Athens the seat of a central government 
which superseded the independent action of a set of 
wholly independent boroughs or cities, our knowledge 
comes only from the stories which tell us of his mar- 
vellous childhood, of the discovery of his father's arms 
under the great stone, of battle with the Minotauros and 
his stealing of Helen, the fatal sister of the Dioskouroi. 
Still, although we may not regard it as history, we are 
not free to say that no such change ever took place. 
It is far more likely that it did ; and the consolidation 
of the Attic Demi into a single state would answer to 
the gradual absorption of the several English kingdoms 
under the sovereignty of the chiefs of Wessex. At the 
least, we must note such legends as that of the Athenian 
Tellos who falls in a battle between the men of Athens 
and Eleusis; ^ and more particularly the evidence of 
* Herodotus, i. 30. 



250 APPENDIX I. 

poems like tlie Hymn to Demeter, in which Eleusis is 
clearly still an independent state, and in which the 
Athenians take no part in the mysteries of the Great 
Mother. 

Nor have we any clearer knowledge of the division 
of the people under the three titles of Eupatridai, 
Geomoroi, and Demiourgoi. But whatever may have 
been their relation to the four tribes, we may fairly 
accept the fact that the substantial power in the state 
was in the hands of the Eupatridai. The days of 
Kings, if ever there were kings in Attica (and the fact 
is in noway unlikely), were long since ended. The de- 
votion of Kodros had made the title too sacred to be 
borne by any after him, as the tyranny of Tarquin had 
made it too horrible to be tolerated. After him there 
were, we are told, archons for life, then for ten years, 
and then the office was put into commission. Henceforth 
the Arch on Eponymos, or the one who gave his name 
to the year, settled all disputes which arose from the 
relations of the family, the gens, or the phratry : the 
jurisdiction of the Archon Basileus embraced cases of 
homicide and religious oiFences ; while the Archon 
Polemarchos settled all quarrels between citizens and 
non-citizens and had the command of the army in war. 
All other matters not restricted to these three were 
under the cognisance of the remaining six archons who 
were known as Thesmothetai, a name which may be 
interpreted by the Homeric phrase, 

diKacnrSXoi oi re Qifxiaras 
TTphs Aihs flpvarai. 

This oligarchical constitution had its Boule or 
Council, which, after the appointment of a second council 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION. 251 

by Solon, received the distinctive title of the senate of 
the Areiopagos. The whole course of Athenian history 
seems to attest the gradual restriction of the powers of 
this body, which continued to retain its jurisdiction in 
cases of homicide long after it had been deprived of its 
legislative and administrative functions. The basis of 
its power was distinctly religious, and the power itself 
was necessarily exercised inflexibly. It was not com- 
petent for the Areiopagos to draw distinctions between 
the guilt of one homicide and another : there could be 
but one doom for all who were adjudged guilty of the 
crime. Hence, if we give credit to the story, it was a 
movement in the way of lenity not of severity when 
Drakon made the distinctions demanded by equity, 
and ordained that the court of the Ephetai, fifty-one in 
number, should sit in different places to adjudicate in 
different cases of homicide according to their complexion 
or to the plea urged by the criminal. But whether these 
Eplietai were in any or in all cases members of the 
Aeriopagos, it is impossible to say. The hardness of the 
Drakonian laws has passed into a proverb ; but it is at 
the least possible that they may have been more mer- 
ciful than those of still earlier times, and that the stigma 
put upon the lawgiver marks only the judgment of a 
later age. 

Of the attempt of Kylon to seize the acropolis it is 
unnecessary to say more than that its chief historical 
importance lies in the use made of it by the Spartans 
to counteract the influence of Perikles before the out- 
break of the Peloponnesian war. ^ It is as likely that a 
vain attempt to erect a despotism should have been 

' Thucyd. i. cxxvii. 



252 APPENDIX I. 

made by Kylon as that the exploit should have been 
achieved by Peisistratos. 

The life of Solon shows ns more clearly the actual 
condition of the people. If Drakon did something to 
soften the indiscriminate severity of the Areiopagos, no 
heed was taken to the frightful sufferings of the classes 
who were excluded from all share in the government. 
Whether the men of the Plain, the Coast, and the Hills 
were so named as belonging to opposing factions, or 
whether they were not, the intestine disorder of the 
country can be doubted as little as the misery of the 
lowest ranks can be called into question. The system 
which tended to reduce English freemen to villenage 
was converting the Attic peasants into slaves. Arrears 
of rent or of produce payable to the owners of the soil, 
were changed into debts, for which the tenant was 
allowed by law to pledge his own body or the bodies of 
his sisters or his children. That the smaller tenures 
generally should be heavily mortgaged was a circum- 
stance not very favourable to the real prosperity of the 
country; but this was as nothing compared with a 
practice which aimed at establishing and extending a 
servile class by the offer of loans which the lender well 
knew would never be repaid in money, and for which he 
sought no other repayment than the bodies of the borrow- 
ers. Such a state of things must speedily eat out the life 
of a nation ; and a legislator, who had the welfare of the 
people at heart, could see in it only a plague to be 
suppressed at all hazards. Doubtless the debts incurred 
by the Thetes or tenants were legitimate debts and the 
lenders were entitled to repayment. The repudiation of 
the debts must involve injustice to them; their main- 
tenance would bring with it the destruction of the 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION. 253 

whole people. The growth of discontent and rebellion 
had frightened the ruling class ; and when Solon was 
invested with something like dictatorial power, he used 
it not to make himself despot, but to put an end to the 
mischief at once by introducing his Seisachtheia, a 
measure which annulled all mortgages on land in Attica, 
restored to freedom all debtors who had been reduced 
to slavery, provided the means for recovering such as 
had been sold into foreign countries, and more particu- 
larly struck at the root of the evil by prohibiting all 
security for loans on the body of the borrower or of his 
kinsfolk. The losses of the lenders, who may themselves 
have been indebted to others, were in some measure 
lessened or compensated by a depreciation of the cur- 
rency.^ The objections urged against these measures are 
sufficiently answered by the fact that the public credit 
was not shaken, and that it never again became neces- 
sary either to debase the money standard or to repudiate 
a debt. 

But Solon did more than redress existing wrongs. 
The tribes, with their principle of religious association, 
still continued undisturbed ; but a new classification was 
introduced which took in all the inhabitants of the land 
without reference to affinities of blood, and was based 
wholly on property. The Pentakosiomedimnoi, or men 
whose annual income was equal to 500 medimnoi 
(about 700 imperial bushels) of corn, the Hippeis who 
had from 300 to 500 medimnoi, and the Zeugitai who 
possessed from 200 to 300, paid a graduated income-tax. 
But only the members of the first class were eligible for 

* For some remarks on the justice of these ordinances and the 
character of loans on which interest may be rightfully required 
see Grote, History of Greece, Part ii. ch. xi. 



254 APPENDIX I, 

the archonship and for all commands ; the men of the 
next two classes might fill certain minor offices. Those 
of the fourth class, which comprehended all the remain- 
ing citizens (by far the largest body), were ineligible 
to any office, but were also free from all direct taxation. 
So far the Timokracy, for so it was termed by Aristotle, 
was in its tendency aristocratic : the more popular 
element was the share granted to the whole body of the 
citizens in the popular assembly, or Ekklesia, which 
had the right of choosing the Archons from among the 
men of the first class and of conducting the examination 
of magistrates at the end of their term of office. To 
Solon also may be attributed the creation of the Probou- 
leutic assembly of the Four Hundred, chosen like the 
archons by the people from the Pentakosiomedimnoi. 

The constitutional changes of Solon were not to bear 
fruit until the Athenian state itself had passed under the 
}'oke of a despot. Happily the tyranny came and went 
without destroying the forms of the Solonian polity ; and 
"when the Peisistratidai were expelled, the tendency of 
that polity soon manifested itself Solon had been content 
to supersede the tribal classification by one of property ; 
Kleisthenes summarily swept away the four ancient 
tribes, and substituted in their place ten tribes entirely 
local in their character, and bearing the names of the 
great mythical personages of the land. Tliese tribes 
were subdivided into demoi, which embraced the whole 
surface of Athens, and thus the whole body of the citizens 
received a compact political organsiation. 

The number of the Solonian council of Four Hundred 
w^as increased to Six Hundred, the members being 
probably chosen by lot; and in place of the single 
Polemarchos, ten Strategoi were chosen, one from each 



ON THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION. 255 

tribe, who first shared and afterwards superseded his 
authority. We have, in fact, arrived at a time when 
the polity of Athens has become highly complex, a natural 
result of the great outburst of national life among the 
Athenian people. The whole body of citizens above 
thirty years of age was invested with judicial functions, 
and in the several courts into which they were divided 
discharged practically almost all the duties which had 
anciently belonged to the archons. As each tribe had 
its Strategos or general, so it contributed one to the 
number of the Apodektai, the responsible oflicers of 
the national exchequer. The fifty senators of each tribe, 
forming the council of the Five Hundred, presided in 
turn in the assembly during the ten Prytanies into 
which the year was divided, and the Epistates, or 
President of the Pry tan es, had in his keeping for his 
single day of office the seal of the city and the keys of 
the Akropolis. 

The constitution of Kleisthenes thus gave an enor- 
mous impulse to Athenian democracy. Every Athenian 
citizen could now feel that he had a share in the two 
great works of making and administering law. He 
found himself the member of assemblies whose life 
depended on freedom of speech ; and with the possession 
of this freedom the fabric of the Athenian constitution 
was virtually completed. It is true that by the reforms 
of Kleisthenes the citizens of the lowest class in the 
Solonian census were still held ineligible to individual 
office, although those of the second and third might be- 
come archons or strategoi. The deliberate rejection of 
the principle of exclusion was reserved for the days of 
Perikles. But important as were the changes or modi- 
fications introduced by the influence or with the ap- 



256 APPENDIX II. 

proval of that most illustrious of Athenian statesmen, 
it is not jiecessary to specify them in a sketch which is 
designed simply to exhibit the general spirit of the 
Athenian polity and the education of the Athenian 
people. 

Nowhere else in the ancient and in but a few portions 
of the modern world, has the sight been seen of a whole 
people taking part in the work of government, maintain- 
ing freedom of speech for all, and allowing exemption 
from its jurisdiction to none. 

But, on the other side, we must set the fact that 
Athenian freedom was founded upon slavery. 



APPENDIX II. 

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SPAETA. 

The Spartans, in relation to the inhabitants of the 
country generally, formed strictly an army of occu- 
pation, and their whole polity may be said to be founded 
on the discipline of such an army. In its earlier stages, 
the Spartan constitution, according to the accounts given 
of it, much resembled the constitution of the Achaians 
as described in the Iliad. Externally then, the Spartans 
occupied a position closely analogous to that of William 
the Conqueror and his Normans in England : internally 
they were governed by a close oligarchy. But the 
Spartan differed from the Achaian constitution, as given 
in the Iliad, in its peculiar feature of two co-ordinate 



ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SPARTA. 257 

kings, both Herakleids, and referred, .by way of ex- 
planation, to Eurysthenes and Prokles, the twin sons of 
Aristodemos. The kings c-rtainly followed in the paths 
of their mythical progenitors, who had spent their lives 
in constant antagonism ; but the Spartans may have 
patiently or cheerfully put up with these dissensions, as 
a security against any violent usurpation of despotic 
authority by either of the two. The power of the kings, 
whatever it may have been (and it certainly was far 
greater than that which they retained in the time of 
Herodotus), is said to have received some limitations 
from Lykourgos, to whom the Spartans attributed the 
establishment of the Gerousia, or Senate of twenty- 
eight old men (the whole number of the assembly being 
thirty, as the kings sat and voted w4th them), and 
also of the periodical popular assemblies, which were 
held in the open air. In these meetings the people 
were not allowed to discuss any measures, their func- 
tions being bounded to the mere acceptance or negation 
of the previous resolutions of the Gerousia. To this 
earlier constitution, according to Plutarch, two checks 
were added a century later in the reigns of the kings 
Polydoros and Theopompos, the first being the pro- 
vision that the senate with the kings should have the 
power of reversing any ' crooked decisions ' of the 
people, and the second the institution of a new execu- 
tive board of ^ve men, called Ephors (overseers or 
bishops). This board was elective; but of the mode 
of election little more can be said than that in the opinion 
of Aristotle it was exceedingly childish. It is certain, 
however, that they acquired, if they did not receive, 
poAvers which in the issue became paramount in the 
state. Nor can it be doubted that in its orio;in the 



258 APPENDIX II. 

office "was popular. By the oath interchanged every 
month, the kings swore that they would exercise their 
functions according to the established laws, while the 
ephors undertook on that condition to maintain their 
authority. This oath could have been instituted only 
at a time when the kings still possessed some indepen- 
dent power : it was retained long after the period when 
their authority became almost nominal as compared 
"svith that of the ephors, to whom they had become sub- 
ordinate. The latter stood on so firm a basis that the 
ephors were enabled to exempt themselves during their 
year of office from the common discipline, while the 
kingly prerogative was cut down practically to the 
command of the Spartan armies in time of war. Ac- 
cording to Herodotus, the kings had the right of declaring 
war at will : but this power was gradually usurped by 
the ephors, two of whom always accompanied the kings 
on military expeditions, thus still further tying their 
hands, even while they appeared to strengthen them by 
giving effect to their orders. 

Still in their extensive domains, in their perquisites 
at sacrifices, in their power to vote in the senate by 
proxy, and more particularly in the religious feeling of 
the people, who saw in them the living representatives 
of Herakles, the kings enjoyed a position by means of 
which they could, as Agesilaos did, exercise great in- 
fluence in state affairs. But when more impetuous 
and less prudent kings, like Agis III. and Kleomenes 
HI. (B.C. 240-2-20) acted on the conviction that by the 
Lykourgean constitution the ephors were merely depu- 
ties of the king, it was seen not only that the contest 
was hopeless, but that that constitution had become a 
purely ideal one, and that the idea formed of it by one 



I 



ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SPARTA. 259 

mind miglit differ indefinitely from that which might be 
formed by another. 

When Ave reach the times of contemporary historians, 
we find the population of Lakonia marked off into three 
classes, the Spartiatai, or full Spartan citizens, the 
Perioikoi, and the Helots. The distinctions between 
these classes severally are su.fficiently clear ; but it seems 
impossible to attain any certainty as to the mode in 
which they originated. The explanations given by 
Pausanias and Isokrates and other writers are incon- 
sistent. In the age of Herodotus no distinction of race 
existed between the full Spartan citizen and the 
Perioikoi, while a large proportion of the Helots was 
also Dorian, if the fact that they were conquered 
Messenians gave them a claim to that title. We are 
therefore left to conjecture, when we seek for the reason 
why the Dorians of outlying districts did not share the 
privileges of the Spartans, and why certain other 
Dorians, with other inhabitants, whose very name of 
Helot we cannot account for, should have been reduced 
to the condition of villenage. The Dorian conquest 
of the Peloponnesos is shrouded in the mists of popu- 
lar tradition ; and when we reach the historical ages, 
we can but accept facts as we find them. These facts 
exhibit to us an oligarchical body filling towards the 
other inhabitants the relation of feudal lords to their 
dependents, supported entirely from their lands, and 
regarding all labour, whether mechanical or agricultural, 
as derogatory to their dignity. In their relations w4th 
one another, these lords were the soldiers of an army of 
occupation, and subjected as such to a severe military 
discipline. In fact, they retained their citizenship only 
on condition of submitting to this discipline and of 
a 2 



260 APPENDIX II. 

paying their quota to the Syssitia or public messes, 
which supplied the place of home life to the Spartans. 
Failure in either of these duties entailed disfranchise- 
ment ; and it may be readily supposed that the multi- 
plication of families too proud to labour, and even 
forbidden to labour, had its effect in producing a class 
of men who lost their franchise merely from inability 
to contribute to tliese Public Messes. These dis- 
franchised citizens came to be known by the name 
Hypomeiones, or Inferiors, and answered closely to the 

* mean whites ' of the late slaveholding states of the 
American union. The full citizens were distinguished 
by the title of Homoioi, or Peers. 

Thus Avhile the oligarchic body of governing citizens 
was perpetually throwing off a number of landless and 
moneyless men, the condition of the Perioikoi, and 
even that of Helots, was by comparison gradually im- 
proving. The former carried on the various trades on 
which the Spartan looked with profound scorn ; the 
latter, as cultivators of the soil, lust nothing by the 
increase of their numbers, while they differed altogether 
from the slaves of Athens or Thebes as being strictly 

* adscript! glebse,' and not liable to be sold out of the 
country, or perhaps even to be sold at all. They were 
the property not of individual owners, but of the state, 
which could at any time call upon them for military 
service, and which they frequently served in the capacity 
of heavy -armed troops. 

Such a polity was not one to justify any great feeling 
of security on the part of the rulers ; and we find ac- 
cordingly that the Spartan government looked with 
constant anxiety to the classes which it regarded with 
an instinctive dread. The ephors could put Perioikoi 



ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SPAKTA. 261 

to death without trial ; crowds of Helots sometimes 
disappeared for ever when their lives portended danger 
to the supremacy of the dominant class; and the 
Krypteia (if we reject the idea of deliberate annual 
massacres of the Helots) was yet a police institution by 
which young citizens were employed to carry out a 
system of espionage through the whole of Lakonia. 
But with all its faults the Spartan constitution fairly 
answered its purpose, and challenged the respect of the 
Hellenic world. In the belief of Herodotus, Sparta 
in times ancient even in his day, had been among the 
most disorderly of states ; but since the reforms of Ly- 
kourgos, none had been better governed or more free 
from faction. The fixity of their political ideas and 
sentiments w^on for them the esteem of their fellow 
Hellenes, among whom changes were fast and frequent, 
wdiile this esteem in its turn fed the pride of the 
Spartans, and inspired them wdth a temper as self- 
satisfied as that of the inhabitants of the Celestial 
empire, but far more arrogant and exclusive. 

Yet the Spartan paid the penalty for the ' course 
which he deliberately adopted. His system produced 
excellent soldiers, but with rare exceptions no great 
generals or statesmen. Among them art and science 
found no home. There could be no free play of taste 
or fancy among men who were pinned down in a rigid 
system of rules, to be observed not in the spirit but in 
the letter. Their whole life was an everlasting drill ; 
and they had their reward in producing good fighting 
machines, as the seminary system of the Roman Church 
produces machines admirably adapted to the purposes 
of ecclesiastical despotism. There is the same an- 
tagonism between the Spartan polity and that of Athens, 



262 APPENDIX III. 

as between Teutonic and Latin Christianity ; and this 
contrast forms the burden of the whole funeral oration 
of Perikles. The one exhibits ^ the free spontaneous 
growth from which external checks are successively to 
give way before a deliberate submission to the principle 
of law;' the other scantly hides ' the rigid petrifaction 
"which must be the result of a multiplication of arbitrary 
rules.' ^ 



APPENDIX III. 

THE SPARTAK AEMY. 

PiTANE was one of the four Komai, Villages or Demoi, 
into which the city of Sparta was divided, the other three 
being Limnai, Mesoa, and Kynosoura. But the exist- 
ence of a Lochos bearing this name is denied by Thu- 
cydides, i. xx. 4 ; and this denial Dr. Arnold regards 
as ^ in other words a denial of the demus of Pitane 
ever having been of sufficient importance to allow its 
inhabitants to form a constituent part of the national 
army ; the military divisions in the old system of the 
Greeks, as well as of the Eomans, corresponding entirely 
with the civil ones.' This last statement is denied by 
Mr. Grote, who speaks of the establishment of military 
divisions quite distinct from the civil divisions as ^ a 
grand peculiarity, observable from the beginning, in the 
Lykourgean institutions.'^ If we suppose that this fact 

» Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1861, p. 346. 
2 History of G-reece, part ii. ch. viii. 



THE SPARTAN AEMY. 263 

was known to Thucydides, then his words would mean 
that no Lochos was named either from Pitane, or from 
any other demos. Bishop Thirlwall suggests that as the 
six Morai, or larger divisions of the army, had reference 
to the six districts into which Lakonia was divided, and 
as each Mora was subdivided into four Lochoi, the four 
Lochoi for the district of Sparta may have been dis- 
tributed on the same principle among the four Demoi, 
or boroughs, already named. These differences of 
opinion sufficiently show the intricacy of a subject for 
which our sources of information are very scanty. 

But whatever may have been the basis of the division, 
the Spartan army was certainly divided into six Moral, 
and each of these into four Lochoi. Each Lochos in its 
turn was subdivided into two Pentekostyes, each Pente- 
kostys finally being composed of two Enomotiai, or 
companies of men, bound together by a solemn oath. 
If each Pentekostys contained fifty men, the Enomotia 
must have had half that number; but this was not 
always the case, the numbers being given differently at 
twenty -five, thirty-two, or thirty-six. Hence the num- 
bers in the Lochos and the Mora were also variable. 
These are the divisions as given by Xenophon ; but 
at the battle of Mantineia there were, according to 
Thucydides,^ seven Lochoi, each Lochos containing four 
Pentekostyes and each Pentekostys four Enomotiai. The 
Pentekostys had thus retained its original signification 
as little as the Latin centuria. 

It must be remembered that these were divisions not 
for times of war only, but for the permanent classifica- 
tion of Spartan citizens during their whole life. Hero- 

* v. Ixviii, 




264 APPENDIX III. 

dotus^ speaks of Enomotiai, Triakades, and Syssitia as 
the Lykourgean military divisions. Of the Syssitia we H| 
have already spoken (page 260) : the Triakades are not 
mentioned elswhere, and Mr. Grote says candidly that 
we cannot distinctly make out what they were. It is 
possible that each Enomotia, or each Pentykostys, may 
have constituted one of the Public Messes : but it is more 
important to notice that the lowest subdivision was em- 
ployed as the great instrument for carrying on the 
Spartan military system. The drilling of these small 
bands of men was carried to high perfection, and enabled 
Spartan troops, if their order was broken in battle, to 
re-form with a celerity and precision not attained by 
other Hellenic states. That the Spartans were subjected 
to this perpetual drill was well known to Perikles, who, 
contrasting Athenian freedom with the rigid system of 
Sparta, tells his fellow- citizens that they have the great 
advantage of not being wearied out beforehand, and 
yet exhibiting in the hour of real danger quite as much 
bravery as those who were always worrying themselves 
in order to be ready for it.^ 

^ I. Ixv. 2 Thucydides, ii. xl. 5. 



INDEX. 



Abdgra, 170 

Abydos, review of the Persian army 
at, 81 

Achaimenes, 63, 120 

Adeimantos, the Corinthian, bribed by 
Themistokles, 125 ; opposes the coun- 
sels of Themistokles, 141 ; reviles 
Themistokles, 142 ; flies from the 
battle of Salamis, and is brought 
back, 157 

Adrastos, son of Croesus, 7 

Aeimnestos, 217 

Aglauros, chapel of, IbS 

Aias, 143, 153 

Aigina, war between Athens and, 96 ; 
meeting of the Greek fleet at, 175 

Akropolis of Athens taken by the Per- 
sians, 139 

Alexander, the Macedonian, 103, 176 ; 
visits the Athenian generals at Pla- 
taiai, 206 

Amasis, king of Egypt, 21, 26 

Ameinias, 152, 156 

Amestris, barbarity of, 90, 240 

Amompharetos, obstinacy of, 211 ; bra- 
very of, 220 

Amphiaraos, oracle of, 8 

Amphiktyons, 112 

Andros, siege of, 165 

Anopaia, heights of, 11^3 

Aphetai, storm at, 127 

Apis, the calf -god, 22 

Argives, the, embassy to, from Xerxes, 
98 ; inform Mardonios of the march 
of the Spartans, 186 

Ariabignes, death of, 155 

Aristagoras, 43, 45, 50 

Aristeides at Salamis, 157 ; cuts off the 
Persians in Psyttaleia, 158 

Aristodemos, the Spartan, 117, 118, 224 

Aristogeit6n and Harmodios, 23 

Aristophilides, 36 

Artabanos, son of Hystaspes, 67, 73, 82, 
84,15 

Artabazos takes Olynthos, 172 ; besieges 
Potidaia, 173 ; flight of, from Pla- 



taiai, 218 ; his passage through Mace» 
donia and Thrace, 229 

Artapherues, 43, 51, 52 

Artayktes plunders the treasures of 
Protesilaos, 241 ; crucified by the 
Athenians, 242 

Artayntes, 238 

Artemisia warns Xerxes against fight- 
ing by sea, 145 ; sinks a Kalyndian 
ship, 154, 156 ; advises Xerxes to 
accept the offer of Mardonios, 161 

Artemision, 104 ; gathering of tiie 
Greek fleet at, 123 ; first battle at, 
126 ; second battle at, 128 

Athenian confederacy, beginning of, 
237 

Athenians, their treatment of Persian 
heralds, 91, 92 ; their patriotism, 86 ; 
migration to Salamis and Troizen, 
136 ; naval tactics of the, 141 ,• they 
rebuke the Spartans, 183 ; answer 
the claims of the Tegeatans, 197 

Athens, debate at, on the oracle from 
Delphi, 95 ; second capture of, by 
Mardonios, 182 

Athos, Mount, 52 ; canal aci'oss the 
isthmus of, 76 

Atossa, 34 

Attaginos, feast of, 187 ; escapes from 
Thebes, 228 

Autonoos and Phylakos, 134 

Bakis, prophecies of, 129, 150, 158 
Boreas, 107 

Cambyses, son of Cjrrus, 21 
Charopinos, 46 
Chileos, of Tegea, 184 
Childn, 120 
Croesus, 6, 9, 14, 17 
Cjrprus, revolt of, 48 
Cyrus, 6, 12 

Darius, 23, 32, 39, 48, 60, 61 

Datis, 52, 53 

Ddiphonos, the soothsayer, 231 



^ 



266 



INDEX. 



Delos, earthquake at, 53 

Delphi, oracle of, 7, 9, 93, 105, 114, 167 ; 
attack on, by the Persians, miracu- 
lously defeated, 133 ; offerings of the 
Greeks at, 171 

Demaratos, king of Sparta, 52, 87, 111, 
119, 121, 143 

Demokedes, 30, 33, 35, 37 

Dienekes, wit of, 116 

Dikaios at Eleusis, 143 

Dodona, oracle of, 7, 8 

Doriskos, numbering of the Persian 
army at, 86 

Eclipse of the sun, 79 

Egypt, revolt of, against Darius, 61 ; 

suppressed by Xerxes, 63 
Eleusis, phantom hosts of Demeter at, 

143 
Ephialtes, 112 
Epizelos, 59 

Erechtheus, chapel of, 139 
Eretria, 53 
Euripus, 125, 144 
Europe, legend of, 4 
Eurybiades, 124, 137, 143 ; opposes the 

counsel of Themistokles, 163 
Eurytos, 117 

Grargaphia, fountain of, 195 

Gelon, tjTant of Syracuse. 99 ; his 
answer to the Athenian ambassadors, 
102 

Gillos, 37 

Gobryas, 40 

Gorgo, daughter of Kleomenes, 46, 122 

Greeks, the, council of , at the Isthmus, 
104; terror of, at Salamis, 148 ; pre- 
pare for the fight at Salamis, 152 ; 
chase the Persian fleet as far as 
Andros, 162 ; march to Plataiai, 195 ; 
tombs of, at Plataiai, 227 ; march 
against Thebes, 227 ; take counsel 
for the defence of Ionia, 237 

Harmokydes, 190 

Harpagos, the Median, 13, 18, 51 

Hegesistratos, the soothsayer, 203 

Samian, 231 

Helen, legend of, 4 

Hellespont, bridge across the, 78 ; 

scourging of the, 79 
Heralds, treatment of Persian, 91 
Hermolykos, 236 
Hermotimos, 162 
Hippias, 54, 55 
Histiaia, Persian fleet at, 130 
Histiaios, 41, 42, 44, 48, 50, 51 
Hydames, 112, 113, 169 
Hyroiades, 13 



16, legend of, 3 

Ionia, first conquest of, 18 ; revolt of, 

against Cyrus, 18 ; against Xerxes, 

236 
lonians, the, ask aid after the battle of 

Salamis, 175 
Isthmus, the Corinthian, wall across, 

147 

Kadmus, of Kos, 102 

KaUatebos, plane-tree of, 78 

Kalliadas, archonship of, 138 

Kallikrates, the LacedaBmonian, 221 

Kallimachus, the polemarch, 55 

Kelainai, 77 

Keos, 150 

Kerkyra, 102 

Kleombrotos, brother of Leonidas, 147 

Kleomenes, king of Sparta, 45 

Koes, of Mitylene, 39 

KritaUa, 77 

Kynegeiros, 58 

Kynosarges, 58 

Kynosoura, 150 

Kythera, 120 

Labynetos, king of Babylon, 18 
Lampon, advice of, to Pausanias, 223 
Loenidas, 109, 110 ; sends away the 
allies from Thermopylai, 115 ; death 
of, 116 ; his body crucified by Xerxes, 
122 
Leotychides, 175, 230, 233 
Lykidas stoned by the Athenians, 182 

Maiandrios, 30 

Magians, the, 90, 108 

Marathon, 54 ; battle of, 57, 58 

Mardonios, 52, 62, 65, 146; offers to 
take the place of Xerxes in carrying 
on the war, 160 ; selects thirty my- 
riads from the army, 167 ; sends 
Alexander with an offer of peace to 
the Athenians, 176 ; advances against 
Athens, 181 ; sends a second message 
by Mourychides, 182 ; takes Athens, 
186 ; advances into Megaris and re- 
treats into Boiotia, 187 ; rejects the 
advice of Artabazos, 205 ; determines 
to fight, 206; reviles the Spartans, 
209 ; is slain at Plataiai, 217 ; his body 
stolen and buried, 226 

Masistes reviles Artayntes, 238 ; mur- 
dered by his brother Xerxes, 240 

Masistios harasses the Greek army, 
192 ; his death, 193; mourning for, 
194 

Massage tai, 18 

Medism of the Thessalians, 103, 104 ; of 
the Argives, 98 ; of the Thebans, 115, 
118, 228 ; of the Phokians, 191 



INDEX. 



267 



Megabates, 43, 44 

Megabazos, 42 

Megistias, the soothsayer, 114, 117 

Melanthios, 46 

Miltiades, 41,55, 56 

Mitrobates, 28 

Mnesiphilos, counsel of, 140 

Mtls, 176 

Musaios, prophecies of , 158 

Mykale, the battle of, 231, 235 ; sign of 

the herald's staff at, 234 ; Phgme, or 

Rumour at, 234 
Mygdonia, lions in, 90 
Myrkinos, 42 

Nineveh, conquest of, by Kyaxares, 6 

Oeroe, island of, 210 

Oiobazus, 240 ; is sacrificed to the god 

of the Apsinthians, 242 
Olive tree, sign of the, in the chapel of 

Erechtheus, 139 
Olynthos, capture of, by Artabazos, 

173 
Onomakrios, the soothsayer, 63 
Oracles, 93, 94, 105, 176, 206 
Oreithyia, 107 
Oroites, 28, 31 

Paionians, the, cheat Xerxes, 168 

Patizeithes, 23 

Pausanias, the Spartan regent, sent 
mth the army fronj Sparta, 185 ; 
alters the disposition of the army at 
Plataiai , 208 ; protects the daughter 
of Hegetoridas. 222 ; rejects the advice 
of Lampon, 223 ; compares Spartan 
with Persian fare, 226 

Peisistratidai, the expulsion of, 23 ; aid 
in the siege of the Akropolis, 138 

Peisistratos, 11 

Persian fleet damaged by storms, 107 ; 
defeated at Salamis, 152 ; and at My- 
kale, 232 

Persian war, the, legendary causes of, 
3,6 

Phaleron, the Persian fleet at, 144 

Pheidippides , the runner, 54 

Phoenicians, punishment of the, by 
Xerxes, 156 

Phokians on Anopaia, 114 ; in the Per- 
sian camp, 191 

Phokis, invasion of, by the Persians, 
132 

Phylakos and Autonoos, 134 

Plataiai, 55, 66 ; the Greek army at, 
195 ; battle of, 213, 217 

Polykrates, 25, 31 

Polykritos, 156 

Poseidon, 108 



Potidaia, siege of, by Artabazos, 173 
Protesilaos, the hero, 241 
Psammenitosj 22 
Psyttaleia, 150,157 
Pylagorai, 112 
Pythagoras, of Miletus, 50 
Pytheas, of Aigina, 105 
Pythios, story of, 68, 77 

Sacrifices, human, 90 

Salamis, Greek fleet at, 135 ; council on 
the shore of, 141 ; preparations for 
the fight at, 152 ; victory of the 
Greeks at, 154, 157 

Samians, the, deprived of their arms by 
the Persians, 233 

Sandanis, the counsel of, 11 

Sardes, capture of, by Cyrus, 14; by 
the lonians, 47 

Scythia, expedition of Darius into, 39 

Sestos, siege of, by the Athenians, 240 

Sikinnos, first embassy of, to Xerxes, 
148 ; second embassy of, 164 

Skyllias, the diver, 125 

Smerdis, brother of Cambyses, 23. 

, the Magian, 19, 23 

Sophanes, of Dekeleia, 221 

Spartans, the, epitaphs of, at Therm o- 
pylai, 117 ; claim recompense for the 
murder of Leonidas, 168 ; embassy of, 
to Athens, 178 ; send out an army un- 
der Paueanias, 184 

Strymon, bridge across the, 77 

Syagros, the Spartan, 101 

Tegeatans, rivalry between the, and 
the Athenians, 196 

Thales, of Miletos, 11 

Thebans, the, 115, 118, 228 

Themistokles receives thirty talents 
from the Euboians, 124 ; device of, to 
detach the lonians from Xerxes, 129 ; 
threatens Eurybiades with the deser- 
tion of the Athenians, 143; sends 
Sikinnos to Xerxes, 148 ; sends Aris- 
teides into the council of the Greeks, 
151 ; urges the Greeks to sail to the 
Hellespont and destroy the bridge, 
162 : sends a second message by Sikin- 
nos to Xerxes, 164 ; is received with 
honour at Sparta, 172 

Thermopylai, 104 ; gathering of the 
Greek army at, 109 ; last battle in, 
115 ; sight-seeing of the Persians in, 
130 

Thersandros, tale of, 188 

Thespians, 115 

Thesi^alians, the, request of, for aid 
from the Greeks, 103; demand fifty 
talents from the Phokians, 120 



IT 



268 



INDEX. 



Thorax, of Larissa, 165, 213 

Tigranes, 232, 236 

Timagenidas, 204, 212 

Timodemos, 173 

Timon, of Delphi, 94 

Timoxenos, 173 

Tisamenos, the soothsaj'er, 202 

Tomyris, queen of the Massagetai, 18 

Tritantaichmes, saying of, 131 

Xanthippos, 175, 240, 243 

Xeinagoras, 238 

Xerxes succeeds his father Darius, 61 ; 
council of, 62, 64, 71 : visions of, 71, 
76 ; converses with Demaratus, 87, 
111, 119 ; dismisses the Greek spies 
unhurt, 97 ; sends an embassy to Ar- 
gos, 98 ; numbers of the army of, 106 ; 
crucifies the body of Leonidas, 122 ; 



sends the news of his good fortune to 
Sousa, 139 ; inspects the fleet at 
Phaleron, 144 ; consults Artemisia 
before fighting by sea, 145 ; praises 
Artemisia for sinking the Kalyndian 
ship, 155 ; punishes the Phoenicians, 
156 ; determines on flight, 158 ; send'^ 
news of his defeat to Sousa, 159 ; cor 
suits Artemisia respecting the offe> 
of Mardonios, 161 ; retreats throug)> 
Boiotia, 167 ; leaves Mardonios to 
atone for the death of Leonidas, 168 ; 
is cheated by the Paionians, 169 ; 
reaches Sardes, 169 ; abandons the 
wife of Masistes to Amestris, 239 ; 
murders Masistes, 240 

Zoster, rocks at Cape, 162 



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